Deaf Ears: Shadow the hedgehog x Rouge the bat
by rougey
Summary: Find out what happens when Rouge is forced into a horrid mission by the government, Sonic & friends & Shadow & Rouge stay on a cruise together for 2 weeks, Shadow discovers feelings for Rouge & things go crazy! If your perverted you'll like this! shadouge
1. Pancakes

Chapter 1.  
------------------------

The room was bliss, not a spot of dust, jewelry boxes could be seen on the indigo modern dresser. The jewelry boxes varied in colors, but all were a magnificent sight. A bed in the center of the room, silk bed sheets wrapped around a familiar bat. An alarm clock could be seen on the nightstand positioned on the left side of the bed. The clock flickered, the time reading "6:00 am". A high-pitched voice began to speak from the alarm clock.

"Goooood morning all tiz out there, we crib'n this sight..." "Greg are you trying this cracker gangsta phase again?" "..No dogg, homie G you can't foo-"

Rouge slammed the snooze button down with her fist. "Can't a lady get her beauty sleep! Bunch of--" Rouge began to mutter her insult and turned back onto her opposite side, still wrapped in the silk sheets. She made the wrap tighter, not wanting to leave the bed, she was too comfortable too, and besides, it was a Saturday after all.

6:08am

Rouge entered her bathroom stretching out. "Wait till I get my hands on him.. Now I can't get back to sleep!" she threatened under her breath. She continued to the sink, grabbing her toothbrush, and the toothpaste. 

Meanwhile Shadow sat on the couch, in the living room, his arms rested on the back edge of the couch, bent so his hands weren't seen if you looked at him from the front. His legs were crossed, and his eyes were closed, but he was very well awake.

Rouge walked from the hallway and into the living room.

Shadow spoke, beginning to cross his arms, "I had a reason for the awakening" shadow said in his natural serious tone, he opened one eye and looked at her from across the room.

Rouge looked back, "Well you better have one, it's a Saturday ya know? This girl needs her beauty sleep" Rouge put her hands on her hips and returned the stare.

Shadow closed his eye, "Hmph" He pushed himself from the couch, and walked into the kitchen, resting one hand on the entrance wall. "Consider this a thank you present".

Rouge followed him into the kitchen, as soon as she walked in, her jaw dropped. The glass table was covered in plates of food, not only was it covered with food, but it looked professional. Omelets full of vibrant vegetables, cheese, and pancakes stacked high, with syrup by its side as well as sliced fresh fruit kept on the same plate, surrounding the pancakes. Fresh baked cinnamon rolls, covered in sweet icing, steaming in its plate from its warmth. Even a loaf of banana bread was in sight. Rouge's eyes melted at the exquisiteness of the food. "Its simply looks mouth-watering.." she said nearly drooling. "Shadow.. you made all this?" she asked, turning her head at him.

Shadow leaned against the kitchen wall, with his arms crossed. "Yeah" he responded, again in his serious tone. Giving something to someone as a thank you wasn't something he was too used to. This was different for him.

Rouge smirked "Well lets see if it tastes as good as it looks" She sat down and grabbed a fork and knife, and began cutting a pancake, she then slid it into her mouth, and gulped it down quickly.  
"It's delicious!" she exclaimed, stuffing her face with the food on the plate.

Shadow couldn't help but smile at her attitude change. Rouge perked her head up looking at him.

"Aren't you eating anything?" She asked.  
"Not hungry" Shadow replied, starting to walk out of the room.  
"Suit yourself" Rouge shrugged and continued eating her meal.

Shadow sat back onto the couch, and grabbed the TV remote. Shadow turned the big screen TV on, and flipped through channels to find something interesting. One channel was about car insurance, another full of infomercials. Shadow flipped to a channel where the president was in view, giving a speech about repairing destroyed cities during the black arms attack, and about sonic coming to the rescue as well as shadow. Shadow was humored by the big deal people made about it; but then also annoyed about it. He didn't want his life criticized or labeled by the media. He didn't want to be known as a hero, or Sonic's twin, but just as, Shadow the Hedgehog.  
In a matter of minutes Rouge was finished with all the food, this astonished Shadow.  
"You finished all that..?" Shadow said shocked, seeing that all the plates were nearly empty, only crumbs could be seen on them.  
"What can i say, i have a healthy appetite. But it simply goes right through me!" Rouge giggled.  
A sweet mark dripped from shadow's forehead, as he knew that her statement wasn't true. "..Heh" he said putting the dishes into the sink, and washing his hands.  
"Hey, where in the world did you learn to cook like that?" Rouge asked, curious.  
Shadow wiped his hands with a dishtowel, looking up at the ceiling.  
"..Long time ago, never mind.." Shadow began to look down, tossing the dishtowel by the sink.  
"..she was a good teacher.. Shadow" rouge said, realizing how he learned how to cook so well.  
Shadow walked back to the couch and sat down, crossing his arms, deep in thought.

Flash back  
Maria grabbed a container of pancake paste from the cupboard. It wasn't a box; it was in a container made of material similar to toothpaste's. It was already wet as soon as it was squeezed out of the container; milk already mixed into it, as well as eggs.  
"You know shadow, if we made this from scratch, it would taste so much better" Maria said thoughtfully.  
Shadow walked up to her, wondering what she meant.  
"What do you mean?" he asked.  
"Grandpa says that all of these mixes have a lot of chemicals in them. It holds back how they could really taste. But it sure makes it last a long time" Maria replied with a smile.  
"Hehe really," Shadow said, a smirk crossing across his face.  
"Shadow, just you and me, I'll teach you how to make them, maybe a lot of things, " Maria said getting excited to finally cook with someone.  
"Maria.. I don't know, food preparation isn't exactly my pastime." Shadow responded.  
"Don't worry it'll be fun" Maria giggled, "The best part is, you can taste whatever we cook."  
"Fine, I'll do it for you Maria, just don't tell the professor." Shadow said, facing Maria.  
"I won't Shadow, Here"  
Maria handed shadow a spoon.  
"Hmm?" Shadow looked at the spoon.  
Maria playfully put some pancake paste on the tip of shadow's nose; Shadow saw it from his reflection given off by the spoon. Maria laughed, as did Shadow, for it seemed they had all the time in the world.  
End flash back


	2. Wow

8:24am

Rouge walked up to him, as more than an hour had passed by, breaking the silence.  
"Well I'm going to take a bath" she said finishing with a yawn. She continued walking towards the hallway, then turned back to shadow "Don't even think about looking" Rouge warned shadow, to tease him.  
Shadow's stare followed her; he lay back relaxing, not replying just yet, though a smirk stretched across his face.  
"I wouldn't dare to" shadow replied. 

",,hmm well behave yourself" Rouge put her hands on her hips and turned around, walking down the hallway, and up the stairs. Rouge took a dark purple towel and entered her private bathroom. Rouge kneeled by the bathtub, and twisted the knob for hot water to come out, however, nothing came out. "You have got to be kidding me" Rouge said to herself. She then tried the knob for cold water, but it didn't work as well. Rouge stood up looking at the shower nozzle. "I guess it's a shower for me" Rouge said to herself.

Shadow's ear twitched, as he could hear the sound of the shower running. He listened intently.

Rouge, after stripping of her clothing, entered the shower, one step at a time. "That's weird, the shower works just fine" she said, getting closer to the nozzle, to feel the water's penetration against her skin. She closed her eyes. "Hmm these shower's aren't half bad" rouge thought, whom was more used to taking baths. She took another step forward, and suddenly the water stopped. Rouge stared blankly at the nozzle, "What in the.." She put her hands on her hips "Is that all?" She got close up to the nozzle, seeing no signs of water passing through. She turned the cold-water knob, and observed it had no effect on the shower. She tried again, nothing. Rouge looked close at the nozzle again, and poked it. Two drops of water dripped from the nozzle, and to the surface of the bathtub. "Hmm?" rouge said in reaction, getting closer. A rush of water burst out of the nozzle, a rush of cold, really cold, water, straight into rouge's face and the rest of her body. Rouge screamed loud enough for shadow to hear her from downstairs.

Shadow jumped off the couch. "Rouge!" he shouted, thinking she was in trouble. He quickly raced to the bathroom and slammed open the door, standing two feet into the bathroom.  
Rouge stared at him wide eyed, jumping quickly behind the shower curtains. She paused in embarrassment. "Get out! Ever heard of knocking?!" she yelled.  
Shadow turned around, not looking at her. "I thought something had happened. I heard your scream as a distress."

He walked out, closing the door. Rouge sighed, letting go of the curtains, noticing the shower's water temperature became just right. 

"It's about time" she muttered, "The nerve of him" she thought.

Shadow leaned against the door and fell to his knees, overwhelmed by what he had seen. It gave him a weird sensation, but it felt good, and spread throughout his whole body. He twitched getting back to his feet, and walked into his bedroom, still twitching, slowly getting onto his bed, he laid down. He couldn't blink; he was just in shock from what he had seen.

"Wow.." shadow whispered in amazement, still mesmerized.

2:04pm

Rouge, passed by shadow's room, noticing he was just laying in bed, staring at nothing.  
"Are you ok?" she asked.  
Shadow didn't reply.  
"Ya look a little out of it" rouge remarked  
Shadow still didn't reply.  
"You didn't see anything, right?" rouge asked.  
"Wow..." Shadow whispered, not even noticing rouge.  
"All you men are alike! You just want some action and then you ignore us, hmph" Rouge crossed her arms and looked to the side, pouting.  
Shadow still kept his blank stare at the ceiling. Rouge walked up to him and poked his shoulder, annoyed from his ignorance.  
"Hey Sha--" rouge got cut off by shadow yelping, jerking away and falling out of his bed, onto the floor.  
"Lets just forget this ever happened" rouge said hovering directly over shadow.  
Shadow nodded at rouge, still on the floor, twitching.


	3. An unreasonable mission

**The next Day, 7:00pm Wednesday Night.**

"Hmm… any sevens?" Rouge held her cards just below her eyes.  
"Go Fish" Shadow said smoothly.  
"Hmph" Rouge said reaching for another card "Ya suuure?" Rouge asked playfully, her hand on the back of a card, scattered among the pile of cards, on the coffee table.  
Shadow eyed her.  
Rouge flipped up the card. "Well would you look what I've got, a whole set of sevens"  
Shadow stacked 3 sets of cards out from his hand, placing them beside him, smirking. "Fair enough"  
"You cheater!" Rouge said pointing at him.  
"Me? Hmph you're the only double dealer around here, Rouge" Shadow replied.  
"I don't know whaaaat your talking about" Rouge answered, looking away, with her devious smile.  
Shadow put his hand of cards down, and got up to his feet; and began walking away.   
Rouge put her hands out in front of her. "What? Where are you going?"  
"Out." Shadow said firmly.

Shadow walked up to the screen door in the dining room, opening it slowly, entering the balcony. He leaned on the railing of the balcony wall. He watched rouge put the cards together and back in the box, just for a second, he then turned back to the view of the city from the balcony. It was a dark night; he could see families walk on the sidewalk, holding hands, laughing about what seemed as nothing. Shadow closed his eyes, seeing this was nothing but bothersome to his heart.

Shadow opened his eyes, instantly jumping from the balcony, hitting the floor with his hover skates, one hand meeting with the concrete, he speed off, nothing but a yellow streak fading away in the distance. He was moving faster than any echidna, any fox, and any hedgehog, even Sonic himself. He felt the wind against his face. He had to go faster. He had to push harder. No holding back. Shadow passed several windmills; the force of his speed caused the windmills to spin out of control.  
Lights in several households flickered, outlets sparking with electricity, even Rouge's club. Rouge turned in surprise, seeing the lights in the house grow bright, after it's flickering spasm.  
"What's going on?!" Rouge shouted.  
Shadow's hands moved in the wind like blades. He kept moving, covering as much land as he could cover. Shadow was not thinking. He did not need to. His objective was nothing but to go as fast as he could. When traveling at these speeds, Shadow forgot about the world, he was alone, and no problems could faze him. Shadow came up to a cliff, and jumped from the very edge, rocks dropped from the cliff, bouncing down to the dark bottom. Shadow's knee and right foot hit the ground, his eyes closed, and arm resting against his knee, sand flowing around him like a lethal gas. The hedgehog lifted himself up, and moved onto a tree stump. He panted, sweat on his forehead, exhausted. Shadow was surprised at his exhaustion; he wondered how far he actually had traveled.

**10:00pm**

The phone rings. Rouge answers.  
A mysterious voice spoke "Code. G-1-4-2-0-6. Agent needed. Urgent."  
"Affirmative." Rouge hanged up. "So the president wants a word with me?" Rouge smiled. "Been a while".

**11:07pm**

"You comprehend the regulations of this exchange, Agent Rouge?" The agent stood in front of rouge.  
Rouge saluted to the agent, with a wink. "You have my word" Rouge sat in one of the chairs of the room, crossing her legs. "It's been a while…. Soo.. What's this all about?" Rouge's eyes moved to the president.  
A women sitting on the opposite side of rouge began to speak. "As you may be on familiar terms with, the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald have a strong connection. One, which can control one another, in the right conditions; you are the only agent to witness this.-"  
"And?" Rouge cut the woman off, wanting her to get to the point.  
"We fear the emeralds are too powerful to be out around this planet. With Dr. Robotnic, and other terrorists throughout this world, the emeralds could fall into the wrong hands, as they have so many times in the past." The women looked directly to Rouge's eyes. "We feel it is best to keep them isolated."  
Rouge put her arms on the arm rests of the chair, leaning forward."Why I'd be happy to isolate all of the e-"  
"Underground, where our scientists can study them. Those emeralds can prove useful for future technologies of this world."  
"Underground? But why?"  
"There are no questions. You are to find and bring us all of the Emeralds. Or you won't find yourself a safe way out of this building. Our scientists are quiet interested in your kind." The women opened the door and walked out, coldly.  
Rouge turned to the president. "What's wrong with her? Isolating the Emeralds, all in one place, is that really safe?"  
The president folded his hands. "It's for the best." He said emotionless.  
"Well what if I don't follow along with this mission of yours?" Rouge crossed her arms.  
"I believe your question had already been answered." The president replied.  
Rouge got out of the chair. Taking a step back. "Oh come on, you'd dissect me just cause I didn't go along with the mission?"  
The president stood up from his chair, and turned to the window, his arms behind his back, the president spoke. "Sacrifices need to be made, for the safety of this nation." 

The agent held a shot to rouge's neck, ready to inject it, Rouge gasped.  
"Alright alright, I'll do what you say, don't need to get rough" rouge exclaimed.

"This meeting is to be kept undisclosed" the agent said to Rouge.  
Rouge turned to him "As always" she turned back to the door, she walked away calmly, though her mind was racing.  
The agent grabbed Rouge by the arm, She turned in shock, as the needle met into her skin, injecting a thick liquid. Rouge dropped to the floor, knocked out.


	4. A Rude Awakening

It was morning. The sun slowly arising, over the hilltops of open fields among the horizon. Birds chirped, as the day had begun. The birds acted similar to an alarm clock. Shadow was laying on the grass, arms, and legs spread out, comfy asleep, until he heard the birds.

"Damn birds.." Shadow picked up a rock, tightening his grip, just about to throw it at the birds. Just as he was about to throw the rock, a helicopter came into view, a bit too close. Shadow jumped back, astonished. Shadow shielded his eyes with his arm, as the helicopter landed in front of him.  
The helicopter was similar to the one that picked up sonic, from GUN, so long ago. Accept it was dark black, and had no logo. After a bit of suspense, a woman stepped out.  
"Good morning, Shadow the hedgehog, my name is Rekha San, I've been hearing about your good deeds. and I'm quite interested in you." The women said, serious as ever. She was someone you could call 'very official' or maybe 'business like' or… 'a lawyer'.  
"Yeah good for you" Shadow said grimly, his arm dropping to his side.  
"I recognize you wouldn't cooperate with an interview. Although I came down here to-"  
Shadow began walking away.  
She continued without pause, "invite you to a cruise, which will lead off to a ceremony awarding you for your heroic deeds. This invitation is from the request of the president himself."  
"No thanks." Shadow said still walking.  
"Sonic the hedgehog along with his friends have also been invited."  
Shadow ignored her and continued walking away.  
"Rouge the bat has also accepted our invitation, I understand you two know each other well. If that does not yet clasp your interest, a Chaos Emerald will be prearranged--"  
Shadow turned and looked at the lady, his gaze was cold, as if he saw right through you. He turned back around and ran off until he was out of sight.

"Hmmm" the lady got into the helicopter; "ALL OF those animals have no respect, sordid creatures" she noticed the pilot eyeing her for command, "follow him" she ordered.


	5. The Plan

"ugh… where in the world am I.." rouge lifted her head, struggling to open her drowsy eyes. As she lifted her self-up, she noticed she wasn't alone. She was resting on a table, as colorless as silver but as cold as ice. Rouge shivered as she looked over at the women sitting across the room.  
"Finally decided to regain consciousness?" the women said. The very same women whom had given rouge her mission a few days back.  
"Wha- " Rouge jumped up on the table, then fell back to her knees. "What did you do to me?" she said with her hand on the back of her neck.  
"Not anything detrimental to your physical condition. The doctors expect you to be a little lethargic after the operation.-"  
Rouge grew pale "Operation?"  
The women got up to the door, her back facing Rouge. "You will locate the chaos emeralds, and bring them to us. That is your mission. If you do not fulfill your mission then there will be dire consequences." The women left the room.  
Rouge jumped off the table, dizzy as if her head was rattled.  
"I gotta find my way outta here fast.." 

----------------------------------------------------

Shadow walked along a dirt path beside a river.  
His stomach growls.   
"Damn where's that pancake house when you need it." Shadow sped up searching for a way out of the forest, and into the city.  
The helicopter passed above shadow.  
"Target is below, mam" the pilot said.  
"Excellent." Rekha replied.  
"Your next orders mam?"  
"Lets find out where he's going" 

-------------------------------------------------------

"Fine I'll do your stupid mission. Just get your hands off of me" Rouge exclaimed infuriated, the two security guards loosened their grip off her arms, and Rouge walked forward with her hands on her hips.  
They were all in a room with no windows. All the walls were steel, the floor lacked tile or carpeting. A single light lit up the entire room, located on top of the ceiling. The only furniture in the room was a desk, and two chairs.  
The women walked around the desk. "A cruise ship has been set to travel to island Mardea. The ship will include passengers such as Sonic the hedgehog and his friends. There are possibilities that the passengers may possibly have a chaos emerald in their inventory. Once on the island, a ceremony will take place, rewarding sonic and others for their heroic deeds. This is an opening for you. As they will be too involved in the ceremony to pay attention to their possessions." The women explained.  
"Oh I see, so you want me to sneak on into their luggage while they're being rewarded." Rouge responded.  
"Yes. That is correct." The women confirmed, leaning against the desk. The women's brown eyes narrowed down to rouge "I believe this will be an easy task for a thief as yourself"  
Rouge shrugged "Please, I prefer to be called a treasure hunter" Rouge's eye lids lowered "But have it your way sweet cheeks"  
The women's firm face grew to a frown. The women handed an 8" by 11" envelope from the desk to Rouge.  
"What's this?" rouge asked.  
The women began to leave, as the security guards followed. "Once you leave here, …open the envelope."  
The woman leaves the room. The two security guards wait at the door, for Rouge to exit.  
Rouge looked at the envelope, then back at the security guards, and walked out of the room.


	6. More Coffee Please

A helicopter hovered over a IHOP restraint, high above the sky, hidden by the clouds of the morning sky.  
"He went to… the international house of pancakes?" Rekha said almost dropping over.  
"it appears so" the pilot replied.  
"what's that animal doing in there.."  
---- 

Shadow sliced his first pancake. And took his first bight. As he chewed he noticed everyone around him staring. He did nothing but stare right back. They jumped in fright and looked away. Shadow smirked, and took another bite, as the crowd stared again. A waitress came up to him "mm-m-m-more coffee si- um.." the waitress was shaking almost.

Shadow swallowed the pancake, "Sure, I wouldn't mind"  
The waitress poured him another cup of coffee.   
An old man hid behind a booth about 4 booths away from where Shadow sat at, talking to his granddaughter.

"That's his 13th cup.." he whispered, in shock.  
The girl looked at her grandfather "Ohh" she said staring in amazement. "Grandpa do ya think he's friendly?" she asked, innocent in everyway.  
"Well… I'm not really sure hehe" the old man laughed uneasily.  
"I wanna pet em" she said.  
"Pet him? You can't pet him, that guy saved this whole planet you know, he's stronger then he looks.." he said eyeing her, hiding his own doubt of the hedgehog. So much power in a little guy like that? Could it be possible? He did have 13 coffees.. but was it possible? The old man thought.  
"Aww but he's soooo cuuuute" she said with her eyes gleaming with anticipation.

Shadow sipped his coffee eyeing the people across from him, one booth over, whom were leaned over their booth seat, to see shadow.  
Shadow looked a little drunk from all the coffees but still his grumpy self. "Get your own coffee" he pointed at the man and set his empty cup down. The waitress refilled his coffee without even asking, it wasn't every day she served a talking hedgehog! In fact she stood right by the table, staring like everyone else in the whole pancake house did.

-------

"This will get us nowhere, take the helicopter back to headquarters Rekha ordered.  
"Right away" the pilot answered, turning the helicopter around, following Rekha's orders.

-------

Shadow put his hand on the table and got up, walking from the table and straight through the walkway. People at their seats all stared as he walked away. The girl jumped out and grabbed his arm, and stared at him.  
"You're so soft!" she rubbed her cheek against his arm.  
Shadow blushed at this, but then recovered his badass attitude, and pulled his arm away, walking out to the door.  
Shadow walked outside the IHOP, on the sidewalk, looking at the stores he passed by. One in which was a jewelry store. Yellow tape blocked the entrance. Shadow could see police inside the shop, talking about a burglary.  
"Hmph" shadow said resentfully moving past the jewelry store.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
"It's good to be home" Rouge stretched her arms and jumped onto the couch in her living room. "Now lets see what's in this envelope" Rouge got out the gray envelope that the women had given her earlier. "What's this?" she pulled a few sheets of paper out, along with two tickets to the cruise to island Mardea. "Directions? I would of expected something a bit more fancy then a piece of paper like this… Wha? Shadow's invited too? My my" Rouge put the papers and tickets back into the envelope. "How am I going to make mr. Strong n' silent go on a cruise.." Rouge yawned and laughed to herself.


	7. Shadow Agrees

12:00am

Shadow jumped from the sidewalk and onto the balcony, his legs were heavy, as it took a lot of energy to run back at those speeds and at the distances he took. Even with all 14 or 15 cups of coffee. Shadow looked down, and then put his hand on the glass screen door, deep in thought. He turned his attention to the inside of Rouge's home; slid open the door, and moving cautiously through out the rooms he noticing that Rouge wasn't there.  
Shadow glided off to his bedroom and fell too the bed like a thousand pound weight. Shadow turned around, laying on his back instead of stomach.  
"Ugh… I think I'm stoned"  
"Maybe I can help?" Rouge appeared on the side of Shadow's bed, she seemed to come out of nowhere.  
Shadow jumped up with his heart racing.  
"I should of knocked shouldn't I" Rouge sat on Shadow's bed, crossing her legs.  
Shadow looked at her and she looked back. Shadow grew tense and stepped off his bed, walking out of the room.  
"Hey where ya going, hedgehog?" Rouge said looking out of the room.  
Shadow didn't answer, and walked downstairs.  
"Hmph, why does he always make it so hard" Rouge sighed and left his room, following him downstairs.  
Rouge found him laying on the carpet in the hallway.  
"What in the world are you doing?"  
"Trying to sleep," he responded, wide-awake.  
"Well it's only midnight, why sleep?" Rouge put her hands on her hips.  
Rouge sat down next to him, and laid down.   
"What are you doing?" he asked.  
"Trying to sleep" she mocked.  
Shadow snickered, closing his eyes.  
"Say Shad, I was thinking, how about we go on a little vacation…"  
Shadow didn't respond.  
"Whaddya think about taking a break from this city here?"  
"Well I like this city" Shadow replied.  
"But you have to admit.." rouge yawned, "it does get pretty boring around here…"  
Shadow opened one eye and looked at her.  
"What?" she exclaimed.  
"Nothing" he kept staring with his normal grumpy frown.  
"Hmph" Rouge got up. And walked over to the living room. "well if your just gonnna lay there, I'll do something fun." She turned on the TV and sat on the couch.

The TV flashed  
Breaking news  
A news reporter appeared on the screen, with Dian's jewelry store behind her.  
"This is reporter Nailya Twight, The robbery at "Dian's Jewelry" Store that took place earlier today is a complete mystery to detectives around the state. The crime not only lacked evidence but witnesses too. The robber or robbers are unknown and may be armed. Stay tuned for further details.—"

Rouge turned off the TV. Remembering the mission she had to stick too.  
Shadow over heard the breaking news but paid no attention to it, he figured it was the same jewelry store he had past in the morning.

Rouge started feeling a pain in the back of her neck, and rubbed it with her hand. "ugh what is that" Rouge headed to the fridge, and grabbed an ice pack out of the freezer. She sat down and put it on the back of her neck.

A few minutes had passed.

Shadow walked into the kitchen eyeing her as he opened the fridge, getting a can of coke out.  
"What?" she asked annoyed.  
Shadow walked out of the kitchen "I'm keeping my eye on you" he responded.  
"Oh come on Shadow, we're passed that, you know where allies" Rouge exclaimed.  
"Sure I do" he said back sarcastically, sipping his coke.  
Rouge put the ice pack back into the fridge, as the pain had faded away.  
"So Shads how about that vacation? On a cruise maybe?" she flashed the two tickets from the envelope.  
"Already got the message." Shadow replied grimly.  
Rouge flew in front of him up close. "…And?"  
"I'm not going. Getting stuck in the same planet with that other hedgehog is enough for me. But on a Ship in the middle of the ocean? Forget about it" Shadow said annoyed at the thought.  
Rouge poked at his chest fur. "It says here on this sheet that the ship is past 5 star... and the food is supposed to be the best around…"  
Shadow walked past rouge and towards the stairs.  
"Oh come on Shadow you really want to pass up a deal like this?" Rouge asked.  
"I had no doubts on my decision" Shadow answered.  
Rouge sighed "there will probably be tons of coffee, all different kinds.."  
Shadow looked at rouge, his attention was caught.  
"Maybe even pancakes.. well a lot of things.. and then there won't be…."  
Shadow's ear's perked up.  
"any people to ruin it…" Rouge grinned.  
"Fine I'll go. But if I see one human there to ruin my day, I'm elsewhere" Shadow walked up the stairs, into his room, and closed his door.  
Rouge sighed in relief "Finally" She sat back on the couch. "Why does he always see past my flirting?" she yawns. "It's like he ignores it every time. Why am I getting myself so worked up over nothing, I got him to go on the cruise.." rouge rested her head against a cushion on the couch and found herself drifting off to sleep.


	8. Aboard the ship

-----------------------------------Flash back------------------------------------------------

Maria Set the bleach white plate down on the steel table, a stack of pancakes on the plate, syrup on the side; the steel table in the eating quarters of the Space colony. Many tables were in the eating quarters. It resembled a children's cafeteria in a way, only more grown up.  
"Dig in!" Maria said with a sweet smile on her face.  
Shadow looked at the pancakes and poked it with his fork.   
"That liquid turned into this?" he asked, bewildered.  
"Yeah, see cooking can do a lotta things"  
Shadow poked it again and blinked, it was the first time he saw pancakes.  
"Well go on, have a bite." Maria watched shadow in anticipation.  
"Well ok" Shadow replied, cutting a slice of the pancake and slowly putting it in his mouth.  
Maria blinked, curious as ever.  
Shadow chewed the pancake, testing its flavor, he wasn't gonna swallow just anything. He had to make sure it wouldn't be a mistake. Shadow looked to the side of the room, then to the other, and swallowed. His face literally glowed, he grabbed the plate wildly and stuffed the pancakes in his mouth, and his mouth was so full; he could barely chew.  
Maria giggled "your welcome, I'll go get… uhh shadow?" she looked a little worried.  
Shadow ran passed her in a flash and grabbed another pancake from the kitchen, he looked back at her and put his pointer finger up (Which is sign language for "one sec" in case some of you don't know what it means.) and swallowed some of the pancakes already in his mouth, his mouth was still fool, but you could still see his cheeks protrude. Shadow took the pancake and stuffed it in his mouth with a devious look in his eyes.  
"Oh shadow" maria started to laugh at the change in shadows behavior.  
Shadow swallowed the pancake, "What?" he asked, like nothing happened.  
"Nothing nothing" Maria waved her hand in front of her giggling.  
Shadow shrugged and grabbed another pancake.

--15 minutes later—

Shadow falls to the floor "ugh… I feel like I ate a whole cow"  
Maria sat up from a chair with something hidden behind her back "well usually people eat 4 or 5, you ate 27 silly" Maria giggled again.  
"What's so funny?" he asked eyeing her.  
"You silly" maria pulled a pillow out from behind her and smacked shadow on his face.  
"Hey! Hey!" Shadow roared and got up.  
Maria giggled and ran away, as Shadow chased her, a smile fading onto his face. They were like toddlers in a playground, playing like nothing mattered, because there was nothing to matter, nothing to waste your worries on, they had each other, and it was enough.

------------------------------------End Flash Back---------------------------------------------------

"Well we're here" Rouge stood at the bridge to the boat. She looked back at shadow "Yooohooo Shadow? Earth to Shadow?" she motioned her hand in front of his face.  
Shadow opened his eyes and flinched a little.  
"Something on your mind?" Rouge asked.  
"No… Nothing, forget about it" Shadow said, walking up the bridge.   
Rouge put her hands on her hips annoyed, and flew up the bridge, following him.  
The ship was painted a magnificent white, you could clearly tell it apart from the other ships, from its beauty. And it was pretty big too. It could hold more then 200 people aboard, but in this occasion, only 9 would vacation on the cruise.  
"So this is where we'll be staying for a week?" Rouge looked around. "Not to shabby, I wonder where the hot tubs are…"  
A man walked down the steps from a higher deck, wearing a red suit, red pants, he was fancy, even had one of those golden clocks. He had slick brown hair, along with brown eyes. He looked pretty tan, but also he looked a little… Italian?  
"Good morning you two, welcome to the cruise ship. You're the first to arrive, but defiantly not the last." He smiled.  
"That's no surprise" Rouge joked.  
Shadow crossed his arms.  
The man turned and motioned his arms for one of the workers to come to him for assistance. A tubby man came running down the stairs, he was dressed more casual, a white T-shirt and jeans.   
"There you are Ralph, go show these two their rooms" The man turned back to the two, "My names Captain Benigo, but you can just call me Ben. I'm the captain of this ship. But since the ship basically drives itself, I'm more of a keep things in order, and answer your questions kind of guy. So tell me if you have any questions, I'll see you later." He waved and walked down to the bridge entrance.  
"So a tour before I show you the rooms? Or the rooms and no tour?" Ralph asked yawning.  
"Nah honey, I'll explore this place myself." Rouge smirked.  
Shadow gave a cold stare to Ralph, waiting for him to quit the chit chat, and show them to their rooms.  
Ralph got uneasy and turned around "Follow me" 

"No no no Amy, please it's not nessasarry!" Sonic pleaded, as Amy pushed Sonic up the bridge  
"YOU ARE GOING ON THIS CRUISE, AND THAT'S FINAL" She growled.  
"BUT THERE'S WATER EVERYWHERE!" Sonic yelped.  
A fish flopped over sonic's head, water splashing on his forhead.  
"Ahh! Get it off me!" he yelled startled.  
Amy hit him with her hammer, and he fell down unconscious. Amy dragged him up the bridge and onto the ship.  
"Oh this place looks soo romantic, doesn't it Sonikku?" Amy smiled looking at the out cold Sonic.  
"Good mor- what happened to our hero? Did he get sea sick too early?" Benigo asked.  
Amy tapped her foot "He's just tired" Amy looked away.  
"Erm.. well… We'll have to get him to a nice bed right away then!"  
Amy's eyes lit up "Of course!"  
"I'll escort you two they're myself, after all he is the biggest hero on this ship, he disserves to be escorted by the captain!"  
"You're the captain?" Amy said in wonder.  
"Yup your looking at the captain of the best ship around!"  
"Well we're honored to be here! Right Sonikku?" Amy smiled nodding Sonic's head. "He says yes."  
Benigo laughed a little. "Ok this way!"  
"Here it is" Ralph opened the door to the room, revealing its elegance, the beds looked like dream beds, the furnature looked like it was made out of gold and silver. Crystal vaces were present in the room as well. There were even couches, and a TV in the room. The bathroom had a bath tub with jets, along with a beautiful shower, with marble walls.  
Rouge's eyes lit up "it's gorgeous! …Are they all the same?" She asked half eyed.  
"..Umm.. Well most are the same.. There are some master sweets but… but we only save those for.. umm hor- honey moons…" Ralph explained a little sweaty.  
"Surely you could spare one for me? None of us are getting married anyway…." She got a little closer to Ralph.  
Shadow's attention turned from the room to Rouge and Ralph.  
"I um.. eh.." Ralph grew more uneasy from the two.  
The awkward situation was broken by a large shout.  
"MARRIED?!" Amy shouted "Oh captain, Sonic and I would love one of those master suites, We've been thinking about marriage and it'd be just the thing for us!" Amy exclaimed, her eyes gleaming with the same crazed intentions as usual.  
"uh… Certainly!" Benigo responded also a little uneasy. "Ralph, show Rouge to a master room as well, and Shadow too if he wants one-"  
Shadow interrupted "I'll pass" he said coldly, slamming the door to his room.  
"What's his problem?" Ralph asked out loud on accident.  
"Don't worry honey, he's always grumpy" Rouge exclaimed.  
"But w-why?" Ralph asked.  
"Ya got me" Rouge shrugged. "Now lets see that master place."  
Benigo and Ralph lead the two girls to the master suites, including Sonic, who had been dragged by Amy all this time.  
The master rooms were a lot bigger, with one big bead full of cushions. There were even windows, and a chandler that looked like it was made out of diamonds.

----in rouge's room----  
"Now this I can get used to" Rouge said floating next to the chandler, holding one of the diamond pieces.

---in sonic and amy's room—  
Sonic was sleeping on the bed, covered by the soft silky covers, he looked so comfy, so peaceful.  
Amy locked the door. "There's no escape now Sonikku" She smirked giving a little snicker.

---in shadow's room---  
Shadow locked the door as soon as he had entered it; he took a walk around the room then jumped onto the bed.  
"I hope I won't regret this. The sea goes on for miles" Shadow laid down and drifted off to sleep.

------ back at the bridge ---------

"So that damn captain greets Sonic but not me? That show off" Knuckles clenched his fists with anger.  
"I'm sure the captain will greet us knuckles. ehehehe" Tails said with a sweat drop running down face.  
"Maybe we came too early?" cream asked.  
"Chao!" cheese agreed.  
Tails looked to cream. "Could be" tails smiled.  
"Why hello there! I just escorted your friend Sonic-" Bengo was cut off by knuckles  
"SONIC AND I AREN'T FRIENDS, GOT IT?!" Knuckles stomped his foot on the ships floor.  
Benigo waved his hand "oh I'm sorry, I assumed everyone invited was his friend."  
"Yeah well think again pal!" Knuckles mumbled.  
"Hi there" tails put his hand up. "This ship is amazing, I read about it on the internet, it can go pretty fast for a big boat" Tails chuckled. "I'm Miles "Tails" Prower, but you can call me Tails. I'm Sonic's best buddy" Tails smiled putting his hand out.  
Benigo shook Tails's hand "And you can call me Ben, I'm the Captain of this ship."  
Cream curtsied "it's very nice to meet you mr. Captain sir"  
"chao!" the chair clapped cheerfully.  
Benigo laughed a little. "Well it's nice to meet you too, what's you name?  
"Oh, my names Cream, and this is my friend Cheese" Cream looked up at cheese.  
"it's nice to meet you all. Ralph here can show you all to your rooms, Sonic's already in his room with Amy, he's sleeping now, he was pretty knocked out when he got here" Benigo laughed.  
Tails and Cream stared in fright.  
"Huh? What's wrong?" Benigo asked.  
Knuckles snickered.  
Ralph came up beside Benigo, "Should I show them to their rooms?"  
Benigo gave Ralph a thumbs up with a smile.  
"Follow me" Ralph said, guiding them all to their rooms.


	9. A Small Fight Over A Small Thing

12am, midnight, the ship already set off into the ocean. The ship is quiet; most are sleeping, except for a certain bat named Rouge the bat.

Sonic yawned and stretched his arms out. "ugh what happen-" Sonic stared wide eyed, seeing Amy cuddled next to him in the bed. Sonic gulped and took her hands off of him, slowly putting a pillow in his place. Sonic tip toed past the bed and to the door. "Hehehe" he chuckled, grabbing the door knob.  
POUND/THUIMP/LOUD SOUND ALL AT ONCE   
The hammer hit the door instantly, Sonic jumped, in dread, as amy stood on the bed giving him a death glare.  
"BWAAAAAAA!!" he screamed.  
Everyone on the ship woke up from the pound, but shrugged it off and went back to sleep.  
--------1 hour later----------  
Sonic finally gets out of the room.

Shadow yawns and gets out of bed, drowsy, but also thirsty, he opens the door to his room, and shuts it quietly. He walks down the hall and makes a left.  
Sonic walks up the hall from the opposite direction, and makes a right.  
They both walk forward, in sight of a vending machine.  
Shadow and Sonic tilt there heads up , and spot each other.  
"YOU?!" Shadow shouts pointing at Sonic.  
"Hi there Shads" Sonic said calmly, walking to the vending machine, Shadow walked to it as well.  
"What?! Sold out?!" Sonic gasped looking at the vending machine.  
Shadow kept an irritated face until it grew to an dumbfounded one, as he saw the last button on the machine wasn't sold out. "Coke-a-cola" it was labeled.  
Sonic notices this at the same time.  
They both jump back in battle poses.  
"Listed buddy I've had a long night! And there's no way your getting this drink! It's mine!" Sonic yelled.  
"Well Sonic I believe your mistaken, if anyone's getting that soda, IT'S ME" Shadow yelled back.  
You could see an electric wave of energy in-between their foreheads, they both grred.

Rouge was behind the wall listening to Sonic and Shadow.

"GET YOUR OWN VENDING MACHINE" Shadow yelled.  
"HEY I SAW IT FIRST" Sonic yelled back childishly.

Tails came up from the right side of the hall, yawning, he walked up to the coke machine, and saw only one was left. "hey did you guys want this last coke?" Tails asked politely. Shadow and Sonic ignored him and kept yelling. Tails shrugged and put 4 quarters into the machine.

"Yeah well Excuse me IF YOU AREN'T COCKY ENOUGH"  
"WELL THEN EAT A SAUSAGE"  
"I DON"T WANT A SAUSAGE"

Tails looked back at them "Uhh…" He kneels over and presses the coke button; the coke can drops to the hole where the user receives their drink. Tails picked up the coke, and looked at it, and back at Sonic and Shadow.  
"Are you sure you two don't want it? Er?"

"YOU DON'T HAVE A GIRL KEEPING YOU PRISONER, I'D DO THE SAME FOR YOU AND GIVE YOU THAT COKE IF YOU WERE IN MY PLACE!" Sonic shouted to Shadow.  
"IS THAT SO, WELL SONIC I GUESS THAT'S WHERE WE DIFFER!" Shadow shouted back.  
Tails looked at them and shrugged, walking away with the last coke, leaving Sonic and Shadow arguing for the coke that wasn't even there anymore.

Tails walked back to his room, and closed the door.

Rouge hid against the wall, outside her room, she glided past Amy's door and dove to the stairs, exploring the places interior. She eventually came across a supply room. She got out a key and opened the door.

"Hmm Lets see what we have here" Rouge kneeled down and opened a box. "A box of…. Cokes?" she said startled. "This must be where they keep some of the food storage," Rouge got up from her knees spotting some salts and seasonings in some jars. "I was expecting something a bit more valuable" Rouge walked around the room, "I guess I'll have to settle for a coke" Rouge picked it up from the box. 'it's not even cold!' she thought. Rouge looked to her side and went out of the room, locking it behind her. Rouge flew back up stairs and walked down the hall, and to her surprise she saw the two hedgehogs were still up, and fighting none the less.

"Ok there's only one way we can finish this!" Sonic got out his fist, Shadow did as well.  
Both chanted. "ROCK! PAPER SCIZZORS!" Both got paper.  
"ROCK PAPER SCIZZORS" Both got Paper again. "ROCK PAPER SCIZZORS" Both got rock.  
Rouge walked down the hall heading towards them.

"ROCK PAPER SIZZORS!" Sonic got paper, and Shadow got rock.  
"Ha!" Sonic laughed and pressed the button to the coke machine. He had a great big smile on his face, while Shadow had a grim stare, with crossed arms. Sonic pressed the button again.. and again… and again.. His face grew to annoyance "Why won't it give me my soda!"  
Shadow looked over to the machine "…It's…. Sold out.. imbecile"  
Rouge walked past them sipping her coke, "Don't you think it's a bit too late for you boys to be up?" She said proudly, doing her little conceited walk.  
Sonic's jaw dropped, "Hey that's!--"  
Rouge walked off leaving Sonic and Shadow's astonished.  
"It's all your fault!" Sonic pointed at Shadow.  
"My fault? If it's anyone's fault it's YOURS. Now lets forget this little disagreement, I have better things to do then waste my time with you." Shadow said turning around walking away.  
"Yeah right" Sonic said scratching his ear. Sonic turned around and headed towards Tails's room. He knocked.  
Tails ran to the door "coming!" Tails opened it.  
"yo tails!" Sonic put his hand up.  
"Sonic do you know how late it is?" Tails said yawning.  
"Lost track of time" Sonic shrugged "But it forever in that room with Amy… Hey… can I stay here for tonight? I'll sleep on the couch, the floor, the TV! Anything just to get away from her" Sonic pleaded.  
Tails nodded "Sure sonic come on in"  
Sonic closed the door and yawned "Didn't realize how tired I was" Sonic jumped on the couch and stretched. He reopened his eyes noticing a can of coke on the coffee table. Sonic jumped to his feet on the couch instantly, "IT WAS YOU!" he hollered.


	10. 4 Days

Even though chaos filled the night, our heroes eventually got their share of sleep. And all of the passengers came to the 'cafeteria' of the ship, which really looked like a restruant rather than a cafeteria, and a fancy one too.

"I see you all had a good rest" Benigo smiled claping his hands together once in a gesture.

Sonic yawned his attention on his fork, which he was poking at in boredom.  
Amy grabbed sonic by the arm "We had a wonderful rest Thank you" Sonic shuddered.  
Knuckles snickered. His feet crossed on the table.  
"Some people just have nooo manners." Rouge pushed knux a bit in a flirtatious manner.  
"Grr! Lay off!" Knuckles shouted furiously.  
"Reeeeelax, it wasn't assault honey." Rouge turned and sat at a table with Shadow.  
"Ah-well lets get you all some of the best breakfast food there is. We have a 5 star chef whom can cook some of the best omelets and a lot lot more, Enjoy your meal" Benigo finished and left to another room.  
Amy picked up her menu after placeing her napkin on her lap. "Hmm.. Soo many things.. ohh I don't know what to choose!" Amy looked over at Sonic "What are you choosing?" she asked curiously.  
"I aint hungry" Sonic mumbled biting his fork.  
Amy gave Sonic the death glare then turned to cream with a cheerful face.

"Sure seems empty around here" Rouge said looking at the empty seats.  
"A little too empty" Shadow agreed.

Rouge looked back at the other table with sonic and friends, they were laughing and talking, surely didn't even think about all the empty tables In the room.

Rouge put her menu aside.  
Shadow eyed her and put his menu on top of hers.  
"You sure know how to keep a girl secure" Rouge said sarcastically to Shadow.  
Shadow crossed his arms and looked away.

"What would you like mr. Sonic the hedgehog?" The waiter said.  
"I aint hungry" Sonic said crossing his arms.  
"Well if you do get hungry, just be sure to ring this bell, and I'll bring you anything you like" the waiter smiled, then continued to Amy's order. "And you miss?"  
"I would like…. Hmm…. The Vegetarian omelet sounds nice---"

insert usual things that come with meals in fancy restaurants along with side items and delicious names of foods with very descriptive titles of the meals that drive Sonic crazy out of hunger but he's too stubborn to admit it.. poooor hedgie  
The waiter collected the menus and handed sonic the bell.

"uh waiter, I don't need this see" Sonic started saying but got cut off by his stomach growling. Sonic shrugged and looked at Amy "Hehe?"

Rouge smiled politely and pointed to what she wanted on the menu.  
"Ah yes, wonderful choice miss" the other waiter complimented.  
"And for you sir?"  
"Pancakes, All you can eat special…."  
Sonic's ear twitches.  
"Well… ok.. Also a nice… choice.." the waiter took the two menus. "I'll be back with your orders as soon as possible" he smiled and walked away.

"You sure you can handle that?" Rouge asked shadow.  
Shadow looked back at her "Hmph… Yeah..".

--10 min later or so—

The omelets were given to Amy and Cream, Tails and Knuckles also had food, as well did knuckles. Knuckles got a big T-bone steak and scrambled eggs, while tails got some sausage and hash browns with scrambled eggs.  
a Big stack of 10 pancakes was given to Shadow.

As soon as the plate hit the table, Sonic's attention turned to the pancakes. He couldn't help but stare, so many pancakes. Amy and Cream talked to each other, tails laughed, also in the conversation. Sonic ignored them.  
Shadow got some syrup and put it on the pancakes, Sonic almost drolled. Shadow cut the pancake into 4 pieces. He stuck his fork in one, then another, and slowly put it into the corner of his mouth. He put his fork down and chewed on the pancake, turning his attention to Sonic, he chewed slowly, wondering what that blue hedgehog was looking at. Sonic lowered himself behind his chair, like a little kid. Amy poked Sonic with a fork, Sonic shrieked and fell off the chair.

"Stop acting so immature and eat something!" Amy said to Sonic.  
Sonic crossed his arms. And then looked over seeing shadow eat the pancakes.

Rouge cut a piece of an orange and ate it slowly, still with her fork in her mouth, she spotted Sonic's stare. She slowly slide the fork from her lips and set it down on the plate. 

"Shadow.. What's he stareing at?" she whispered.  
"Don't know." He said while cutting a pancake.  
"I'm done, I think I'll step out for a bit" Rouge said scooting out of her chair.  
Shadow looked at her and nodded.  
Rouge leaves the room.  
Shadow couldn't help but notice she didn't eat as much as usual, or at least as much when he cooked for her that one morning. He wondered if something was troubling her. His thought was broken when suddenly.. something very.. very.. unexpected happened..

Sonic rung the bell wildly "I WOULD LIKE A PANCAKE MY GOOD MAN!" he said with a british accent. "HA HA HA" Sonic yelled.  
Amy glared at him "Sit down" she said sternly.  
Sonic quickly sat down.  
"Good boy" she said patting his head.  
"I don't think Mr. Sonic likes it, Amy" Cream said concerned, as Sonic had a sad face, his ears down.  
"Oh he doesn't mind, Right Sonic?"  
Sonic paused, uneasy.  
"RIGHT SONIC?" Amy said with fire in her eyes.  
Sonic nodded with a fake smile, looking away.

Benigo came out of the kitchen "I hope you all are enjoying your meals, your pancakes are being prepared right away." He smiled. "Tonight there will be a dinner in a special celebration room, with one big table, I'm sure it'll be much better then this empty room here. It'll be at 6'o clock. I'll see you then" He smiled and walked out of the room yet again.

"I didn't realize how empty it was" Amy said looking at the empty seats.  
Cream nodded "but at least we're all hear with our friends, right cheese?" Chese chanted "chao chao chao!"  
Amy giggled.

"Right. I understand." Rouge talked into a small walky talky, simmiliar to a cell phone. "4 days" she confirmed. She hanged up.  
"What was that all about" Shadow said leaning against the door way to the hall.  
Rouge thought fast, realizing she couldn't tell him if she was going to get all the chaos emeralds, including his.  
"Confirmed a schedule, relax it's nothing too important," Rouge put the phone away. "So shadow, up for a swim?"  
"I'll pass" Shadow said, turning around and starting to walk away.  
Rouge put her hands on her hips. She flew after him. "Come on Shadow we don't do a lot together, you know, there's a lot of fun things to do on this ship" Rouge said thoughtfully.  
"Really" Shadow said almost ignoring her. He sensed she was up to something.  
"Yeah… you know I could show you" she suggested. She came to a corner of the hallway, Shadow behind her "This way" she said walking down the hall, Shadow followed.


	11. Rouge is sucha Tease

Shadow remained quiet. Watching the cunning bat's every move. Though she was merely walking, He didn't know where in the world she was taking him. 

Rouge was doing nothing but thinking herself. Sure tricking Shadow and the others would be a peace of cake. But one careless mistake and the whole plan could be flushed down the toilet. And bye bye flying in the freedom. Rouge didn't want Shadow to get even more suspicious as they walked, so she brought out her old charm.

"So Shadow.. Even though this place is disserted. You have to admit, it aint that bad" Rouge smiled looking back at Shadow.  
"I agree, although I could imagine better."  
"Whaddya mean?" Rouge asked curious.  
"Well the service here is worthless.. Not to mention sharing the vacation with those morons." Shadow complained.  
"Least they're keeping their distance" Rouge shrugged.  
"Ha! Distance?" Shadow scuffed. "That blue hedgehog nearly drooled in my plate." Shadow exaggerated.  
Rouge giggled.  
An announcement spread throughout the ship on speaker, "Water activities now set up, water slides, wave pools, and hot tubs ready for your enjoyment. On top east deck! We hope to see you soon!" The announcement was a recording, used previously on other occasions.

They both kept walking.  
Rouge brings Shadow to an arcade room. All kinds of games could be seen, air hockey, even an actual bowling alley!

Shadow stared astonished.  
"it's a miracle we got here first, huh Shadow? Up for a game of air hockey?" Rouge leaned against the air hockey table.  
Shadow stared bewildered "Air hockey?"  
"haven't you ever played?" Rouge asked him smileing.  
"No… I haven't" Shadow walked to the other side of it, slowly scanning the table.  
"It's easy! See that puck there in the middle? What we do, is try to get that puck into the opponents goal. That is the objective…. Who ever gets it in the most wins the game!"  
Shadow nodded "Alright.."  
Rouge flicked the switch "here we go!"  
"KYAAA!" Shadow flicked the puck off the table with his hand feircely, Rouge quickly ducks, it flies over rouge's head and dents the wall behind them, it bounces off the floor.  
"Damn" Shadow muttered.  
"Not like that!" Rouge exclaimed.  
Shadow crossed his arms. "What?"

---Later---

"Sooo nice for you all to join us here" Benigo said grateful.

It was dinner, all sonic and company were at the long dinner table with an elegant silk white tablecloth, the table was well decorated as well. A turkey, a Ham, Roast beef even; salads, biscuits, mashed potatoes, corn, and all sorts of food. It was more plentiful then a Thanksgiving dinner.

"You look lovely miss rouge" Benigo complemented.  
"As always" rouge smirked.  
Amy glared at Rouge.

As everyone started eating, talking etc. Rouge was taking in a lot of food. She had already finished 6 plates of food, and still going.

Sonic sat on the left of Rouge, Shadow on the right. Shadow sipped a little white wine from his wine glass. He occasionally drifted his sight to Rouge then back down to his dinner plate, and sometimes even at Sonic.

Sonic couldn't help but notice all the food Rouge was eating. He was stunned… until he decided to say something.

"WHEEERE DOES IT AAAALLL GO?!" Sonic said pointing at Rouge. Saying it loud so the whole table could here.  
Shadow punched Sonic on the jaw, the blow pushing him out of his chair.  
"What was that for!" Sonic yelped.  
Shadow glared at him, he knew what Sonic was saying, ohh he knew alright, all the guys knew. Shadow sat back down in his chair calmly.

"Who do you think you are hurting Sonic like that!" Amy shouted.  
"Give it a rest Amy" Sonic got back into a chair. "He didn't punch me too hard" Of course Sonic didn't know his jaw was swelling up like a balloon.

After dinner, desserts are dressed on the table, sundae's, banana splits, hot fudge brownies, ice cream, and even delicious fruit.

Rouge took some vanilla ice cream into her plate.  
Cream slowly took a banana split "oh it all looks so lovely, Doesn't amy?"  
"Yeah, I don't know what to choose first…" Amy turned to sonic. "What are you going to pick, Sonic?" Amy asked politely.  
"I don't know.. the hot fudge sundae's look good" Sonic smiled.  
Amy smiled back.  
Rouge slowly spinned her spoon in the vanilla ice cream, filling the spoon, and pulled it up to her mouth.

Sonic stared, Tails even stared. Knuckles looked but then looked in the other direction. Shadow was busy.

Rouge slowly slid the spoon to her lips.. into her mouth, she pressed her lips at the spoon, eating the ice cream from the spoon. She only caught Shadow's attention when she let out a moan of pleasure "Mmmm… it's devine.." she said taking another spoon full.  
Shadow looked over at her and almost chocked on a grape, he got out of his chair, his face a little red, and walked towards the exit of the room.

"Leaving so soon Shadow old boy?" Sonic said in his british accent, still with the balloon jaw.  
Shadow ignored him like a deaf man and walked out.  
Rouge looked at Sonic "You really should get that checked out" she eyed his jaw.  
Sonic laughed "You kid'n? It doesn't hurt me at all.. hehehe" Sonic touched his jaw and yelped in pain.  
Rouge giggled eating more ice cream. "Well knuxy your awfully quiet."  
Knuckles shared some of creams banana split, it was too much for her to finish.  
He swallowed his bite. "When I'm away from the Master Emerald, there's no reason to talk, the only reason I'm here is to retrieve a piece of the Master Emerald. "  
"Really? But what does this cruise have to do with the Master Emerald?" Rouge asked half eyed.  
Amy grew annoyed, Knuckles was giving away information again!  
"On the island the boat's taking us to, there's an emerald shard there," Knuckles said deep in thought on how he could restore the Master Emerald yet again.  
"Really…what makes you so sure?" Rouge took another bite of the ice cream.  
"That's enough from you bat girl" Knuckles gritted his teeth. He didn't like it when people questioned his statements.

--outside on the upper deck of the ship, late at night -3am—

Outside on the upper deck of the ship, Shadow leans against the railing of the walls of the ship, recollecting his thoughts. He had to spend time alone, otherwise he would have gone crazy with so many morons in the same room. Shadow gazed at the stars. They were far out into sea.. no light pollution near by, so the stars were uncountable. It reminded him of the many times he'd stair from the Space colony, at earth, the stars, anything really outside his window. Shadow strolled by the swimming pool, looking at his reflection.

"what does Rouge have that I don't got!" Amy yelled to cream. She was in a hot tub with cream. The two girls had no clothes on, it was so late, they figured no one would see them.

Shadow overheard it, and hid behind the wall perpendicular to the wall the hot tubs laid against. Shadow watched them, with surprise. He knew he shouldn't watch them, but he couldn't help it.

"Amy you're a great hedgehog, but I think your coming on to Sonic just a little too much.. I mean.. um.. well.. "  
Amy stood up "Too strong?! If I do nothing all he'd do is ignore me!"  
Shadow's eyes widened, he hid against the wall looking away.. then crouched down looking back at them from behind the wall again.

Cream hesitated "well you should try to be a little less aggressive Amy.. " Cream suggested, feeling ashamed of what she was saying.  
"Aggressive? Am I really that aggressive?"  
"Yes.. you are really aggressive Amy…" cream admitted.  
Shadow was still watching them.  
Amy sat back down "So then I should let Sonic be the aggressive one?"  
"Umm.. I guess so Amy" Cream smiled uneasily.  
"Ohh I can imagine it now! It's perfect! Cream you're the best!" Amy complimented.  
"Thanks Amy" cream giggled.  
Amy noticed a hedgehog's shadow, and spotted the hedgehog watching them.  
"Sonic is that you?!" Amy jumped out of the hot tub and ran to him.  
Shadow jumped and ran from the area into the lobby, and down the stairs and into the hall. Amy chased him fast.  
"You were watching me! This proves you want me!" Amy yelled.  
Shadow turned passing Sonic fast.  
"Boy does my jaw feel better!" Sonic felt his jaw with his hand grinning happily.  
"Take me now you agreessive hedgehog you!" Amy flung herself at Sonic pushing him over.  
"Whao amy! Get off!" Sonic yelped. His fur all wet from Amy's wet body.


	12. The Note

I suppose you wondering why the hell Sonic is up at 3 in the morning. Well because of his throbbing jaw, he's been up for hours putting ice on it. Rouge loves the night, so she's up too. Cream went back to her room. She's asleep, so is Tails and Knuckles. Shadow? I don't have the slightest clue where he is, he ran away from Amy. If she figured out it was him, it'd destroy his reputation. Hmm. It was only the second day they were on the ship. No ones killed anyone. I guess that's a good thing. Shrugs

Rouge walked down the halls, in thought. The only way that echidna would know the Master Emerald was on that island, was if he had a shard with him himself. Or if he had a radar in his possession. She knew this was something her bosses would be interested in, but she wasn't too honest of a person. She wanted the Master Emerald for herself. They already would get all the chaos emeralds. But what they didn't know, was that as soon as she got that thing removed from her neck, She'd take ALL the emeralds for herself. She was finding them, so they should belong to her!

Rouge stopped, hearing Sonic yelling  
"Amy! Amy please!" Sonic begged  
"Keep that dirty mouth quiet, will ya?" rouge made fun of, knowing his dirty comment at the dinner table.  
"It's not what it looks like!" Sonic pushed Amy off of him.  
"Get a room!" Rouge put her hands on her hips walking away.  
Sonic nervously crawled backwards, knowing Amy would be furious.  
Amy laid there "Oh Sonic… I thought you'd never be interested in me sometimes.. but then I saw you watching me In that hot tub… oh Sonic..Take me you aggressive hedgehog you!" She got back up ready to pounce on him.  
"Hot tub?! Amy wait!" Sonic put his hands in front of him to stop her, Amy jumped at him, and he ran before she touched him, he wasn't interested in her at the least bit; and hot tub? He didn't even know there were hot tubs!

Rouge knew the best time to search for the possible emerald shard in Knuckles room was in 2 weeks or so, but she was to curious to wait that long. She needed a distraction. But what? She knocked on the door to knuckles room. She had to knock more then once.  
"Ohh knuxy? You uuuup?" Rouge said flirtatiously.  
Knuckles opened the door, he wasn't happy. "What do you want?" he asked annoyed.  
Rouge let herself in. "Soo knuxy… how are things?"  
"Things are late." Knuckles said tired. "Why are you up anyway?" he asked suspicious.  
Rouge sat down on his bed. "What can I say I love the night life" She looked to the side, searching his closet from a distance with her sonar. She couldn't sense anything in there, but there was a shard in his room, she could sense it.  
"You know I wouldn't mind sharing that master room with you" Rouge winked.  
Knuckles glared at her knowing she was up to something. "Why you! Get out!" he snarled blushing.  
"Whyyy?" Rouge smirked "I think you like having me here" She lowered her eye lids, slipping her hand under his pillow, as she thought, the shard was right underneath knuckles pillow. How old fashioned she thought.  
"Get out!" he snarled louder.  
"Ok ok! have it your way," Rouge walked out of the room.  
Knuckles slammed the door.  
Rouge walked down the hall _'ahh.. so an emerald shard is on this very ship! In 2 weeks knuxy.. this little tooth fairy's going to pay you a visit…'_

Rouge walked up to the pool area, and to the hot tubs.  
_'it couldn't hurt'_ she thought, as she took her shoes off, dipping her feet in the hot water. "ahh… much better" She leaned back sitting on the edge of the hot tub, her feet and ankles submerged in the hot steamy water. _'I could of taken that shard now, but if I took it, it'd probably jeopardize my current mission. Ugh damn those guys. If I could just get this thing out of my neck, I'd be home free and fly away from this joint'_ rouge was frustrated.

---Third day—it's 11am. Sonic's been hiding from Amy ever since the 'wet hedgehog' incident. Everyone's asleep, except Tails, he's the only one that slept early.

11:45 am

Rouge knocks on Shadow's door. No response is given.  
"Shadow? It's me…. Yaaaa there?" Rouge knocked a second time.  
Shadow lay on his back, eyes closed, on his bed.   
Rouge tapped her foot impatiently. "Shaaaadow…?"  
Shadow practically drooled he was fast asleep.  
Rouge twisted the doorknob, to her surprise it was unlocked, she tip toed in. _'Don't tell me he's sleeping..'_ Rouge came over to the bed. _'He is!'_ Rouge put her hands on her hips glaring at Shadow, she noticed he was in a comfortable state. _'He looks so different this way…'_she thought, seeing the crease on his forehead was absent from his expression. Rouge took a moment and then realized she shouldn't stay too long, she didn't want him to wake up and see her there, talk about invasion of privacy! Rouge took a step back, bumping into a vase behind her, making a small 'ching' sound. Rouge felt a drop of sweat move down her forehead. _'Why am I worrying myself? He's fast asleep! I can make all the noise I want and that Hedgehog won't budge! Hmm..' _Rouge looked at Shadow once more, _'..I better do what I came here to do..'_ she said to herself, a little shameful.  
Rouge picked a note from in-between her bosom. She slipped it into Shadow's hand, and tip toed away to the door, only looking back once she got to the door.  
"Later sleepy head! Nice chat'n with ya!" she said sarcastically, and closed the door.

Shadow smirked, as Rouge closed the door, not noticing his consciousness.


	13. The 4th Day

The note reads:

Dear Shadow,  
There's something I need to talk to you about, but I never got around to doing it. You think you could meet me out by the pool tonight?  
Sincerely,  
Rouge T. Bat

It was evening, Shadow waited against the wall near the pool. Rouge came from the other side of the ship and walked up to him.  
Shadow looked at her awaiting her explanation for the note.  
"Hi" Rouge waved over to Shadow as she walked up to him. "I see you got my note!" Rouge exclaimed with a wink.  
Shadow had a half smile. "…And just what was it you wanted to tell me?"  
"Honestly Shadow, so quick to what you want" Rouge's eyelids drifted down a little. 'I hope I can get this stupid set up over with' She thought to herself annoyed at her previous orders. Rouge turned from him, expanding her arms in a stretch like motion. "The truth is Shadow, I think we should really take advantage of the atmosphere here!"  
Shadow frowned. "What do you mean"  
"Oh come on Shadow!" Rouge faced him again "Look around you! This place has so much to offer!"  
Shadow just looked at her, waiting for her to get to the point.  
Rouge took a few steps back. " I just think.. –" Rouge paused, she couldn't do this. Her orders were too vague to her liking. Rouge looked at Shadow taking another step back. "Shadow.. I can't do thi-" her vision grew blurry as her thoughts grew more negative to the set up.  
"Rouge..?"  
The back of Rouge's neck started to hurt, and she started to see double, "Urrah.." she let out a little moan of discomfort, shutting her eyes.  
Shadow took a step for her, "Rouge?!"  
Rouge meant to take another step back, but instead fell backwards right into the water. Her body drifted down to the bottom of the deep pool.   
'Just great' Shadow said to himself sarcastically, He quickly dove into the pool for her. An electric wave struck him, his mouth jerked open from the pain, no sound coming out, Shadow flinched, as he looked back down at Rouge, he kept swimming. An electric wave hit him again, Shadow winced as he got to the pool floor. He scooped Rouge up into his arms, and pushed off the floor of the pool, quickly moving to the surface of the pool. He was struck 2 more times on his way up, the strikes were longer each time, hitting not only him, but Rouge too. Shadow kept one eye closed keeping his eyes up at the surface of the water. He shot out of the water grabbing the metal stairs too the pool. He pushed himself out of the pool, with Rouge In one of his arms. He got up from his knees and took heavy steps. His quills were soggy, dripping with the cold pool water. He looked down at Rouge's face, taking heavy breaths with his teeth digging together. She was out cold, but still breathing, barely. Shadow kept going, each step was like a stab in the knee.

He didn't know what was going on, but those electric charges weren't meant to scare off the birds, and he knew that. Shadow turned back at Rouge, gritting his teeth. Trusting the ship wasn't the best choice right now, so was bringing her to the infirmary the right choice? Where else should he take her?

Her room was the next best thing. Lucky for him, she left it unlocked. It didn't matter though, because he kicked the door open. Shadow carried Rouge to the bed, and set her down on it.  
"..I presume this makes us even.." he said, knowing she probably wouldn't hear him. Shadow stared at Rouge's unconscious face. What was wrong with her? Who set those charges? And what did she want to tell him? Shadow's hunger for answers was cut short by his pain. The shocks really shook him up. He lugged himself over onto the couch. It was pretty late, and everyone was asleep but him.

Rouge's assignment was to that on the fourth day, she was supposed to lure Shadow into the water, the pool, where he would instantly be knocked out. It was 4 days ago that her boss told her she had to lure Shadow into the pool water, where he'd be knocked unconscious by electric charges in the pool. This shock would copy all the genetic information of the hedgehog, and all needed information on what he was capable of, his body composition, etc. The shock worked much like the shock that shocked Sonic to create his copy, Metal Sonic. His DNA would be tested, and x-rays would be generated as well. However, Shadow's stamina was underestimated, and he was not knocked out. But the information was contained.

"Agent Rouge's mission successful. Nero-94607-chip successful. Ultimate life form DNA is under our possession, and is ready for DNA testing."  
"Excellent"  
"The ultimate life form data will be released to you once testing is completed."

-The next day.-

Rouge awoke in her master room on the ship. Her head hurt like heck. "ugh.. What happened?" She asked herself, not remembering a thing from yesterday. Rouge stepped out of her bed. "What a head ache.." She muttered to herself. Rouge looked over to the bathroom, and at the tub. "Hm.. Nothing a hot bath can't cure.." She slowly walked to the bathroom, and got the bath ready, setting the temperature to her liking. Rouge slid into the tub once it was full. "Ahh.." Rouge closed her eyes, fragments of the night before reawakened in her memory as she settled into the water. She remembered she hit the floor of the pool, and that someone saved her.. Rouge put her hand to her head, but quickly jerked her head up. 'Shadow..' 'What happened to him?' she looked down into the water. "and What happened to me?" she asked herself 'Hmm.. maybe my imagination is just getting the best of me..'.

Just at that moment, Rouge's pager went off. Rouge got up from her hot bath. "Now what!" she said irritated. She grabbed the pager from off the nightstand. _'Hmm.. it's the president..'_


	14. The sea was Silent

"..sensors picking up radio transmission… communication line received.. re-routing connection… sequence begin in 5.. 4… 3.. 2.. 1…"

BRAAAHHH YEEEEHHHH machine sounds could be heard, they were like thunder. Everyone in the ship shot their heads to the sky, noticing the loud crackle.  
"What in the world?" Rouge whispered.  
The boat started to shake violently.   
"yueaaraaah!" Rouge held onto the bathtub, the bubbles and the water splashed everywhere.  
Shadow blinks "…Wha?"  
Rouge quickly slips back into her clothes, 'Good thing I didn't take my make up off yet' she thought. She ran to the door but stopped when she saw Shadow "Shadow? What are you doing here?"  
Shadow got up onto his feet, a little shaken up, but who wasn't, with a ship that big, it was like a giant earthquake.  
The boat began to shake more. The vaces and pictures on the well shook off and fell to the floor, glass broken everywhere. Shadow and Rouge were more interested in what was causing this disturbance, then their conversation. They could pick up on that later. But this is NOW. They both looked at each other and nodded, and ran out of the room, and up to the top deck.  
"What is that thing?!" Cream shouted "Chao chao!" cheese shouted.  
"Stay by me!" Amy ordered, she didn't want cream getting hurt. "Everything will be ok" Cream held onto Amy.  
"Heh heh It's about time…" Sonic snickered.  
"OK WHAT'S THAT RACKET" Knuckles snarled, running over to Sonic, but quickly taken by the enormous machine holding onto the edge of the boat.  
Sonic zoomed up to the edge of the boat. "Eggman! It's about time you showed up! I was getting bored!" Sonic winked.  
Knuckles crossed his arms in disgust "Grrr… Some hero"  
"What's happening?" Rouge came up to the deck, With Shadow right next to her.  
"Eggman decided to show up," Knuckles growled.  
Shadow and Rouge looked over at him.  
"Eggman? What does he want this time?" Shadow asked. 

"Re routing complete. Successful." The machines computers read to the infamous Dr. Eggman.  
"I believe you have a chaos emerald that belongs to me!" Eggman spoke through his speaker, to Sonic.  
Sonic smirked "Finders Keepers Dr. E" Sonic tossed a dark blue emerald in his hands.  
Rouge's attentions turned to the emerald. 'He has a Chaos Emerald..' she thought to herself.  
"Give me your emerald and the rest that are present on this ship, or you'll be swimming with the sharks!" Eggman threatened  
Sonic shuddered 'Water… yuuuck…' Sonic yawned trying to show no concern.  
"Why you!" Eggman quickly launched a small missle.  
"Whao!" Sonic jumped out of the way.  
Shadow dashed in front of the missile quickly and destroyed it using his chaos spear attack.  
"Are You crazy!? Do you want the ship to be sunk?!" Knuckles shook his fist at Sonic.  
Sonic ignored Knuckles and Ran across the deck, and then jumped up in the air, facing the giant machine.  
The machine launched electric shocks at Sonic. Sonic dodged each one, several times. "Is that the best you got Dr. E?" Sonic taunted, lowering his eyelid, as he landed on the robots shoulder. The robot launched a shield of energy, blowing Sonic away with a great force; he hit the watchtower of the boat. "Ugh.."  
"Sonic!" Amy yelled with concern. "That's it, No one hurts my Sonic!" Amy got out her giant piko piko hamer, and charged for the robot.  
"Not so fast!" Eggman launched several metal boxes onto the upper deck of the ship; they all bounced in front of Amy.  
"Huh?" Amy said confused.  
"shwooosh." The boxes quickly surrounded her making a circular cage.  
"What?!" Amy hammered against it, no effect. "Darn it!"  
"Now if you would just give me that Emerald I'd be happy t-" Eggman was interrupted.  
"Doctor!" Shadow shouted. "I've had enough of this show" Shadow began walking towards Eggman. "its your time to leave."  
"And who says so?"  
Shadow got into battle stance, preparing his chaos spear. "Huuraah! Chaos spear!" Shadow shot it at the core of the robot, it bounced off, nearly hitting Sonic.   
"Geez!" Sonic shouted.  
"Your attacks are useless, you might as well give up now. With my egg-o-barrier in place, you can't touch me. You're already beaten."  
"So you say." Shadow held his stance.  
"This is ridiculous, Doctor, we're on a vacation. Couldn't you have waited a few more days?" Rouge snipped.  
"My time is precious, my Dear Rouge" Eggman launched the hand to his robot to grab for Rouge, Rouge jumped into the air.  
"So quick to touch, Doc?" Rouge mocked. Rouge then winked at Sonic and Shadow from above. She was stalling, keeping the doctor busy. "Honestly, I thought you at least would have some manners."  
Sonic and Shadow nodded then looked over at each other nodding again. They started to run for the part of the machine that was attached to the boat.  
"Well.. " Eggman continued on, buying into Rouge's stalling.  
"Now Shadow!" Sonic shouted.  
They both grabbed each other's hands and Spung using a spin dash attack together, creating an enormous force, they blasted against the core of the machine, trying to break the barrier.  
"No! what are they doing!" Eggman noticed what Sonic and Shadow were doing.  
"They're trying to break the barrier!" Tails called out to everyone, pointing out the obvious, as usual.  
"Tails!" Amy shouted.  
"huh? Who said that?" Tails asked a little frightened.  
"Come on Tails! Get me out of here!" Amy shouted.  
Tails took a step away whistling.  
"Tails!!" Amy yelled in anger.  
"Ho ho" Eggman pressed a button in his control room, an electric pulse shot through Sonic and Shadow. They were flung into the air. Eggman was ready to launch homing missiles, but the controls weren't responding correctly. This held him and his machine back. 'Hmm.. something's interfering with some of my controls…'  
"Sonic! Sorry Amy, I'm uh.. busy" Tails Pushed off the deck and flew into the sky to catch Sonic.  
Rouge flew up and caught Shadow by the hands. Tails and Rouge flew in the opposite direction of each other, a hedgehog held by both.  
"Thanks Buddy" Sonic thanked Tails. Tails nodded with a smile.  
"If you won't give me those emeralds, I'll be forced to tear this ship to shreds!" Eggman released a giant spinning blade, ready to chop the boat in half, with the other passengers on board. However, the blade wasn't moving at full blast, it was vulnerable to attack. It seemed like whenever he tried to attack the ship, something went wrong.  
"Not if I can help it!" Knuckles growled. "Sonic, lets try the Spin dive!"  
Sonic gave thumbs up and winked. Tails dove down with Sonic, ready to spin against the blade.  
"That's crazy!" Rouge said watching them dive.  
They dove down, against the blade; sparks flew in the air from the two spinning figures. Tails flew into the air throwing dummy ring bombs at Eggman's machine. In return Eggman shot homing missiles at Tails.  
"Uh oh!" Tails flew out of the way, but noticed the missiles were following him. "gahh! Homing missiles!" Tails zig zagged trying not to get hit.  
"Hmph, ..Hey.. Rouge.., you still have those dummy ring bombs?" Shadow asked.  
"..Ah I see where you're going with this, I have something even better. Grab onto my feet."   
Shadow grabbed onto Rouge's feet instead of her hands. Rouge got a bunch of round bombs, they resembled poke balls. "Set to go off in 10 seconds!" She dove and flew around the machine, throwing as many bombs as she could, trying to weaken the barrier.  
Knuckles noticed Tails problem "Tails over here!" Tails flew down at knuckles.  
"Wuuuuhhh!!" Tails shouted in fright.  
"Gyeh kyuh eh Kyuh!" Knuckles punched out the missles.  
"..Whew.. Thanks knuckles" Tails panted.  
Rouge handed Shadow some charges to put on the machine.  
"Ready?" Rouge asked.  
"Ready" Shadow replied.  
Shadow began to spin in a spin dash, and Rouge kicked him at the machine. He nearly made the machine fall over as he made contact with it, a powerful blow. He put the charges on the machine, and kicked off it, Rouge grabbed him and flew out of the way. The charges explode, making the ship fall into the sea.  
"What? Nooo! The shields been destroyed!" Eggman shouted. "You pests!"   
Shadow gave Rouge a high five. Rouge giggled.  
"What's so funny?" he asked.  
"Its just fun to fight side by side, like we used to." Rouge said.  
Shadow thought back to the last time she said that to him, when they were in the Doctors base, surrounded by guard robots. He finally started to understand what she meant. "Heh"  
The machine blasted out of the water, splashing water everywhere.  
"What?!" Sonic shouted.  
"It's not over" Knuckles growled.  
Rouge jumped into the air "I've had enough of you!" Rouge lunged at the machine with a powerful drill kick; blasting right threw the Robot's interior and exterior.  
"Uh oh.." Eggman panicked.  
"Turn the ship out of the way!!" Tails shouted  
The captain gulped and grabbed the wheel, trying to turn the ship away from the machine.  
"It's going to blow!" Eggman quickly ran to an escape submarine. And got out of his giant machine, he quickly got away safely as the machine sunk into the ocean.  
5…4… 3… 2… 1..   
"Broooooowwwwwwwwooooooooowchhhhxchhhhcxxhxxxxhxxxx!" the machine exploded, creating a giant blast of water, the ship almost fell on its side, but luckily got away from the explosion enough to survive.  
"Yeh-heah! Too Easy!" Sonic high fived Tails. "Sonic 1,324 Eggman 0!"  
"You keep count?" Knuckles asked dumbfounded.  
"Uhh.. well I.."  
"Hey wait, where's Rouge?" Tails asked.  
"Huh?" Sonic looked out into the sea.  
Shadow realized Rouge never appeared after kicking through the machine.  
"You don't think.. she was.. in the machine when it exploded?! Do you?!" Tails asked franticly to Sonic.  
None of them spoke. The sea was silent.


	15. To Lose something Dear to you

Clouds spread across the sky, it wasn't a sunny day today. It looked like it could almost rain.

Flash Back  
Shadow layed on the carpet, Rouge walked up to him, stairing at him with endless curiosity.  
"What in the world are you doing?"  
"Trying to sleep," he responded, wide-awake.  
"Well it's only midnight, why sleep?" Rouge put her hands on her hips.  
She sat down next to him, and laid down, to mock him playfully.  
"What are you doing?" he asked.  
"Trying to sleep" she mocked.  
Shadow snickered as he closed his eyes.  
"Say Shad, I was thinking, how about we go on a little vacation…"  
Shadow didn't respond.  
"Whaddya think about taking a break from this city here?"  
"Well I like this city" Shadow replied.  
"But you have to admit.." rouge yawned, "it does get pretty boring around here…"  
Shadow opened one eye and looked at her.  
"What?" she exclaimed.  
"Nothing" he kept staring with his normal grumpy frown.  
"Hmph" Rouge got up. And walked over to the living room. "well if your just gonnna lay there, I'll do something fun." She turned on the TV and sat on the couch.  
End Flash back

Flash Back (Sonic battle scene)  
ROUGE: Hmm! You'll never change, will you? That robot... Gizoid is known as  
the "Ultimate life form." Just like you, except he's 4000 years older. I  
heard the Doctor was hiding something really big, and I guess this is  
it...

- The alarms sounds, and a Guard Robo approaches Shadow & Rouge.

GUARD ROBO: Intruder alert! Intruder alert!

SHADOW: Dang!

ROUGE: giggle Hee hee...

SHADOW: What's so funny?

ROUGE: It's been a while since we fought together like this!  
End Flash Back

Flash Back (From Sonic Battle)  
ROUGE: Hi, sugar! Yes! Good morning, Shadow! Has the prince finally  
awakened?

SHADOW: I must go. I must go to the Gizoid. To the Emerald.

ROUGE: Hey! You can leave as you please, but don't you dare pass out on me  
again! Who do you think dragged you here in the first place??

SHADOW: You...? ...

ROUGE: Th-that's right...! You aren't even going to thank me?! It figures! You  
men are all alike, you know that?!

SHADOW: Thanks, Rouge... Thanks for saving me. I cannot allow myself to die  
just yet.

ROUGE: ..."Emerald Beach."

SHADOW: Huh?

ROUGE: You're looking for Emerl, right? He's always there. Hmm! I went ahead  
and told them about you, anyay.

SHADOW: ... Huh. Heh... "Ally."

ROUGE: Wh-what? You got a problem with it?

SHADOW: No... I don't.  
End Flash back

Shadow clenched his fists slowly. "Damn it…. " he muttered. "Damn it!" he shouted, Shadow fiercely punched through a wall on the upper deck.  
"Hey, calm down Shadow!" Sonic pleaded.  
"That stupid bat disserved it" Knuckles smirked stubbornly. Everyone turned to him.  
He'd always know the wrong think to say in situations like this. He once said terrible things about Sonic, when he disappeared, and Rouge had to kick Knuckles on the back of the head for it. Sonic X episode 52  
"IT sure takes a load off my back." Knuckles scuffed.  
"Knuckles!" Sonic said in disbelief.  
"It's true-"  
Shadow plowed his fist into Knuckles stomach, Blood spurted out of Knuckles mouth, he hit the rim of the boat.  
Shadow's eyes were a strong red, red energy flew around him, he lifted his hand up, energy waves pulsating in it. "HEHRAAAGH KEEP YOUR FUCKING MOUTH SHUT" He aimed to blast Knuckles in the face, Knuckles Jumped out of the way and tried to land a punch on shadow's back, Shadow grabbed Knuckles by the arm and slammed him through the floor. Knuckles snarled.  
"Stop!!" Cream shouted getting in between them. "I know what Mr. Knuckles said was wrong.. but she can't be dead, she just can't be… Mr. Shadow.. please.. please! stop fighting!" Cream had tears in her eyes. " Please Mr. Shadow, This isn't getting anywhere!"  
Shadow was ready to attack cream with a chop of the fist.  
"Mr. Shadow!!" Cream shouted

At the HQ of GUN.

"Radio transmission unresponsive. Report. Something has redirected the signal" reported an agent.  
"Trace the signal." The women said. This was the same women who worked for the president, that made Rouge abide by her orders.  
"We've got something"  
"Let me see."  
"I'm picking up voices. Analyzing voice patterns and identifying."  
The women nodded.  
The agent held a surprised face,"..I don't believe this.. it's… Dr. Eggman!"

---somewhere out in the sea—

Eggman sat at his control screen, in the submarine. With little time to spare, he managed to escape his exploding creation by sneaking into this underwater escape pod.  
"I would have destroyed them all if my dang blasted controls worked!" Eggman complained to himself. "Ah yes, the back up files are safely secured. If I had lost those, I would have lost my nasty little discovery.. Ho ho ho" Eggman laughed to himself.

"Lets see what this radio transmission is picking up" Eggman listened intently as he streamed the transmission. "Hmm.. All I hear is echos. Testing, testing. Hmm. Maybe if I stream it closer to the surface it will work properly!" Eggman drove the submarine up to the surface of the Ocean, and listened in on the transmission again. "Anything?" he asked himself. He then heard "Anything" in the radio transmission. "That's impossible, I hear myself."

The agent contacted Rouges communicator. "Contacting Agent Rouge. Rouge, Respond" There was a pause. The agent slammed his fist to his keyboard. "Rouge? Do you copy?" The agent tried fixing the channel. "Rouge!" The agent looked around nervously.

"..Yeah yeah, heardja the first time" Rouge whispered.  
"Your not in the location you were assigned."  
Rouge wondered how they knew this. Were they tracking her? "Well old Egg-head decided to show us a show. My hands got tied up in his little mess. I'm in an under water vessel of his, but I don't know where we are."  
"You are currently 30 miles from your original location." The agent responded.  
'So they are tracking me!…' rouge answered to herself. "30 miles? Boy.. I need to get a hot ticket off this egg-head express ride."  
"I'll direct you once you escape. Over and out."  
"Roger." Rouge answered.

They end the conversation.

Turns out Eggman wasn't the only one who managed to escape into his little escape ride. Rouge clung to the ceiling of the tall submarine.

"Hmm, how am I going to understand what I discovered if these dang blasted controls still won't work!" Eggman shouted with anger, thinking that this echoing surely was an error.  
'Hmm….Nasty little secret huh?' Rouge listened in, curious on what this secret was.  
"But then that's prosperous, this hardware was designed by me, the worlds greatest genius" Eggman gloated to himself.  
'Bluegh' Rouge stuck her tongue out disgusted. 'I have no time for this, I have to focus on the major objective. I don't wanna be sliced and diced!' Rouge gulped.  
Rouge climbed to the ladder leading to the door of the submarine. She slowly climbed up the steps one by one, and screwed open the door, She poked her head out of the opening, chilled a little from the cold air, but it didn't really bother her, Rouge has been in colder places then this.  
"Thanks for the ride Doc!" Rouge flew out and into the air.  
Eggman shot out of his seat, startled "What?! How'd you-"  
Rouge was already long gone.  
Eggman looked up at the open door, then back to the screen. "Hmm.." Eggman put his hand to his chin, listening to the signal, there were no longer echos of himself.

--Back at the ship.---

Knuckles got up. "Outta the way!" He ran past Cream and charged at Shadow. "Arrrgghhhh!!!!" Knuckles yelled with a fierce punch. Shadow turned swiftly dodging the punch. Knuckles pushed off his right foot and curved a punch to Shadow's chin. "Got'cha!" He smirked. Shadow's Face slowly turned from up, to down, he slowly slid off his bracelets. The look on Shadow's face was undescribable. It was… wild, an out of control wild.   
Knuckles jumped away from Shadow, but Shadow's speed was far faster then any thing Knuckles was capable of. Shadow kicked Knuckles into the air like a beanbag, and then jumped up after him. He slammed down on Knuckles back and kneed Knuckles in the stomach at the same time. Blood splashed out of Knuckles mouth like a small skwirt gun. Shadow grabbed Knuckles arm and threw him around like a play toy. Tails flew up and caught Knuckles. He flew back down to the deck, holding Knuckles still. "Stop Shadow!" Tails called out from the deck.  
Shadow landed back to the deck, slowly approaching Tails. Tails took a couple steps back.  
Sonic ran in front of Tails. "No way" Sonic said sternly, ready to take anything Shadow could throw at him.


	16. A Suprise in the Night

"You don't know what its like… DO YOU SONIC?" Shadow yelled angrily.  
Sonic held his ground.  
"To lose everything that is dear to you!" Shadow pointed out to Sonic.  
"Shadow!" Sonic shouts.  
"Kyuh!" Shadow shouts in pain, as he drops to his knees. The back of his head, a tranquilizer lodged into it.  
"Benigo!" Tails shouts.  
Benigo shot the tranquilizer to Shadow's head; and then shot another to Shadow's arm.  
Shadow gritted his teeth in anger, he pulled one out of his arm. "Damn you…" Shadow faints.

It starts to rain.

"That bastard" Sonic said. Sonic turned around to Tails. "You ok Tails?"  
"Yeah.. I don't know about Knuckles though.." Tails held Knuckles.  
Knuckles struggled to get up "..That was MY fight Sonic.. I could have handled it…"  
"I'm sure Mr. Shadow didn't mean it.. Rouge was his friend. If I ever lost cheese.. I'd… I'd.." Cream started to show tears in her eyes at the thought of losing her dear friend cheese. She hugged Cheese tight.  
They looked down a little.  
"Sorry.. but I thought he was going to harm our hero." Benigo answered the unasked question.  
"Eh no sweat," Sonic said cocky.  
"We have to get Rouge back you guys.." Tails said.  
They all look at him.  
"Hey! What about me!!" Amy shouted from inside the box imprisonment.

'Some vacation, first I get forced into a mission! Then old Eggy decides to attack us! Then I almost get blown to pieces! And now this! Talk about bad luck! And my neck is killing me!' Rouge thought annoyed. 'And its raining!!'

Rouge called up her previous caller "I'm out, So what are my directions?"  
The agent responded after a short pause. "Take a right, and head north. You're right on course"  
"Ok"

Rouge finally gets back to the ship. The rain left her completely soaked. No one was on the upper deck any longer. Two hours had already passed since the big fight.

--in the infirmary—

Amy put a cold washcloth on Knuckles forehead. She usually was annoyed with the echidna, but this time she was a little more sympathetic. Sure she wanted to yell at him for being so stupid, like she usually does, but he looked so beat up.  
"How's he doing, Amy?" Cream asked as she walked in.  
"I think he's doing a little better." Amy said sweetly.  
"That's good" Cream smiled. She then had a sad face. "I wonder how Shadow is…" she said.  
Rouge walked down the halls looking for well.. anyone. She came across the light to the infirmary, and hid behind its door. She listened to Cream and Amy's conversation.  
"I don't know.." Amy said "After what Knuckles said.. After Rouge disappeared, Shadow.. he completely lost it." Amy looked down. "Knuckles really needs to learn to keep his big mouth shut." She added. Of course we know Amy wasn't a perfect example of keeping her mouth shut either.  
'Shadow…' Rouge thought.  
"Where did Benigo take him?" Cream asked.  
"I think he took him back to Shadow's room."  
'Bingo!' Rouge said to herself with a smile. She then took off and flew down the hall, on her way to Shadow's room.

Rouge put her ear to the door. She hears nothing. She puts her hand on the doorknob and twists it slowly. She enters. Rouge looks around the room, trying to see if Shadow was there. And there he was, on his bed.  
Rouge flew over to him, and sat down on the nightstand, watching him sleep.

She got onto the bed and tapped him on the shoulder.

"…Rouge.." He said, in his sleep.  
'..Is he…dreaming about me?' Rouge asked herself surprised.  
"………Rouge.. Don't go…!" He shouted as he clenched his sheets in his fists.  
Rouge's eyes widened.  
Shadow clenched his sheets harder and harder, shutting his eyes tighter and tighter.  
'Shadow…' Rouge felt so sorry for him.  
Shadow gritted his teeth.  
"Shadow!" Rouge started shaking him. "Hey Hey Wake up!"  
Shadow gave no response, just kept digging his hands into the bed.  
Rouge shook him harder "Shadow!"  
Shadow tore the sheets with his hands as he clenched them into his fists.  
"Shadow…" Rouge's face was so sad for him. She moved Shadow from his side and put him on his back.  
Shadow was growling in his sleep.  
Rouge leaned in close to Shadow's face, holding him down with her hands on his arms.  
Shadow continued to growl, with his eyes shut tight.  
Rouge leaned in further and put her soft lips to his.  
Shadow's fists released the covers slowly as he felt her lips against his. He was no longer tense. He lifted his eyelids leisurely.  
Rouge was kissing him on the lips.  
Shadow at first was stunned but was overtaken by the good of the moment. It was unreal, she was alive, and not only that, but kissing him. His friend, that he held so dear to him, was…. ok..  
Shadow returned the kiss as Rouge's lips still touched his.  
There didn't need to be words.  
Shadow moved his hand to Rouge's cheek; and Rouge moved her hand behind Shadow's neck. The kiss was now passionate.  
Rouge broke away from the kiss for a second, knowing she had to say at least something to explain this behavior..  
She slid her hand onto his chest fur and down to his lower stomach. She stepped off the bed and backed up to the door.  
Shadow wondered what she was doing.  
Rouge locked the door and stood against it "You know Shadow… I now know why I've been wanting to do that for so long…."  
Shadow listened.  
"The way… you've always been strong.. you've ignored my flirtatious manner…. You've shown me what no one else has… You never give into it… You know what you want… …Your so tough…." Rouge paused. Very seductively.. she then whispered.. "….It turns me on!"  
Shadow's eyes widened.  
Rouge ran and jumped for Shadow in the bed, giggling as she wrapped her arms around him. Shadow put his arms around her wet body, going on top of her.  
Rouge pulled him close and put her lips back to his. She slipped her tongue into his mouth and played with his tongue. She rolled on top of him, as he and her were still entwined in the kiss.  
Rouge stopped. She looked down at Shadow with a smirk. "It seems something just popped up…."


	17. Um Bang?

Tails and Sonic walked down the hall.

Amy met up with them.

"Hey Sonic, wait up!" she started to run to him.

**BANG **

BANG 

**BANG**

The ship shook violently!

Amy fell to her knees, Sonic caught her.

**BANG **

BANG 

**BANG**

Tails hid under a small table.

"Whaa! What is that, Sonic!" he shouted, holding onto the table.

"It's an Earth quake!" Sonic shouted in response franticly, barely keeping himself standing.

A light falls from the ceiling, Sonic pushes Amy under a table parallel to Tails's. "Is it Eggman again?!" Sonic exclaimed.

**BANG **

**BANG**

BANG 

"Yeah!" a women's voice shouts.

BANG 

They all look up.

"…That was Rouge! She's ok!!!! She's ok, you guys!!!" Tails shouted.

**BANG **

**BANG**

**BANG BANG **

BANG 

**BANG**

They all hear a loud moan.

They all look up again.

"…and She's hurt!!!" Tails shouts.

**BANG BANG BANG**

BANG 

**BANG**

"Rouge!!" they all hear.

**BANG BANG BANG BANG**

"And Shadow's…. with her…?" Sonic asked, holding onto the table.

"Aww how nice… how romantic…" Amy started to to touch Sonic's arm.

"Amy! Now's not the time! We could be in danger!!" Sonic shouted.

**BANG **BANGBANG** BANG BANG**

BANG BANG 

BANG** BANG BANG**

…… BANG ..

They hear a big moan from Rouge again!

The ship slowly stopped shaking.

"Thank goodness that's over!" Sonic sighed with a sweat drop, he REALLY didn't want the ship to sink, in water again. Thank god it was over. Whatever that shaking was from. He didn't know! But he was just so glad it was over!

**BANG **

**BANG BANG **

**BANG BANG **

**BANG**

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!!" Sonic yelled in anger.

_-----------------------------_

* * *

**_Lol what, you expected me to describe the sex scene? My goodness, this is a story rated "T"! Hmph!_**

**xD**

**_Hopefully you'll understand what the banging ment _xD;;_ If not, ask a perverted friend. D  
_**


	18. In the morning

Rouge played with the patch of white fur on Shadow's chest. "…Well that was somethin'…"

Shadow had his arm around Rouge, his expression was both drowsy, and calm.

They were in the same bed, still Shadow's room. Rouge had no clothes on.

Rouge giggled.

"What's so funny?" Shadow asked.

"I..… I…. ..well to be honest... I don't really know.." rouge giggled a little more.

Shadow smiled.

"…You really are the worlds ultimate life form… Shadow…" She giggled some more.

Shadow blushed a little realizing the compliment. He couldn't help but laugh a little.

This was followed by a brief silence.

Rouge felt so comfortable resting by Shadow, and as for Shadow, for once, he didn't feel so... alone.

They let the moment last, as long as it could.

---

In the morning.

----

Shadow lifts his eyes open, noticing Rouge was still there.

It was only now he truly looked at her.

She was so.. beautiful..

He put his hand on her cheek admiring her beauty. He smiled. He just felt so… so.. different. The storm clouds that were once in his mind felt like they had disappeared.

Rouge grabbed some of the sheets for herself, and snuggled into them, greedily. Of course she was still asleep though.

Shadow almost laughed. "Greedy even in your sleep, Rouge?"

Rouge was still sleeping.

Shadow smiled again, and got out of the bed. He looked back at her once more and shook his head. He slipped his skates on, and gloves, and left the room, to take a walk. He locked the door behind him.

Shadow walked down the hallway, he was deep in thought. What got into him last night? He had never done that before.. to anyone. But then Rouge wasn't just anyone. He turned the corner, and continued walking down the halls. To his horror, he ran into a certain blue hedgehog.

"Hey buddy!" Sonic said waving to Shadow.

Shadow kept walking.

Sonic invited himself to walk along with Shadow. "Yo Shadow! Rude much?"

Shadow still didn't respond.

"Hey, we heard Rouge last night, So she's alright?"

Shadow stopped walking. And looked at Sonic. "She's fine." He then continued on his way.

"Hey cool!" Sonic smiled. He followed Shadow again.

"Don't you have better things to do?" Shadow complained to Sonic.

"Not really. The others are all sleeping! Ha! I get up early to take a spin around the place. This place really isn't that big. I've ran all through it about 300 times already!" Sonic said, showing off.

"Really" Shadow said dryly. He couldn't care less.

"Yeah!" Sonic said in reply, not getting the hint.

Shadow crossed his arms. "Listen… It's been a pleasure talking to you Sonic, but I'll be on my way" Shadow began to walk once again.

"Any time Shadow!" Sonic grinned.

Shadow couldn't wait till he got away from that moron.

(----They've all been on this ship for about a week, one more week, and they'd finally get to the Island.----)

Shadow walked for a while, and started to head back to his room.

He opened the door, and stepped in.

The Shower was on. "I've gotta go. Someone just came in." Rouge whispered, and hanged up on her communicator.

Shadow saw that Rouge was no longer in the bed. He walked up to the bed, staring down at it.

He heard the Shower running.

Rouge was humming.

Shadow sat down on the bed, waiting.

Rouge was so happy from what happened, that she almost forgot about her mission. The call she just received was a reminder. She looked down a little depressed. 'Why… now..' she thought. "'If it wasn't for that damn lady…' Rouge's hands formed fists. 'No.. Rouge.. stay calm.. you don't want Shadow to suspect anything..' She advised herself. She turned the Shower off. And wrapped herself in a towel. She walked out of the bathroom and up to Shadow.

"You're back sooner then I expected.." She said looking down at him.

Shadow looked up at her.

She sat down next to him; his eyes never left hers.

"For a sec there, I thought you weren't coming back!" Rouge admitted.

"Heh.. well it is my room.. Rouge"

"Yeah yeah… but then again I'm sure that's not the whole story.." she smirked at him getting closer.

Shadow stared at her for a long time; Rouge never changed her expression.

"They heard us.. you know" Shadow said to her.

Rouge rolled over into his lap. "Ha! Good, maybe they learned a thing or two"

"Heh, I don't think any of them had the intellect to catch on.."

Rouge giggled. She sat back up on Shadow and put her arms around his neck. "Hey com'ere lets give em another chance.."

Shadow put his hands on her hips smirking. He felt so anxious…

"Hey but wait… I'm starved… Why don't we order a little room service first!" Rouge exclaimed.

Shadow shifted his eyes from the phone and back to Rouge. She was so… fast… she wasn't afraid to touch him.. however.. he admired that. Most people feared him, but.. she didn't. He didn't know if they were going to fast, but he was enjoying every second of being with her like this. But… there was just something…. Something… unusual…..


	19. What is Love?

Things were a little awkward after this point. Shadow and Rouge were still good allies, but they tried not to talk about what had happened between them.

Of course trying doesn't mean succeeding.

Tonight was movie night, all of sonic and friends, except Knuckles and Cream, went to the movie. Cream was too young, and Knuckles was still recovering from the previous battle, though he would never admit it, he portrayed to everyone as if he was fine. He was always stubborn like that. He didn't care for any romance action movie anyway.  
The only reason why Tails was there, was because Sonic begged him to not leave him alone with Amy. He understood how Amy gets during movies.  
The movie was "Mr. And Mrs. Smith".

As they all watched, they could all randomly hear Amy shouting "don't go in there!" "Does she know that?" "Is that poisoned?" "don't drink it! It's poisoned!" "Sonic!!". Surely the annoyance of the evening.  
"Hey blue boy, shut pinky up over there!" Rouge yelled across the theater, from her chair. She sat next to Shadow, naturally she had the largest container of popcorn that the ship had. And she did all she could to get it. She wouldn't dare share it with anyone, accept maybe Shadow, but he rarely had any anyway.  
In part of the movie, the Mr. And Mrs. Smith did something similar to what Shadow and Rouge had done the night before. Shadow was intrigued by this. He looked over at Rouge slightly, then back to the screen. Rouge. It was interesting, Mr. And Mrs. Smith were both spies, Rouge was a spy, and Shadow had recently been asked to join the GUN force as a GUN agent. He was still thinking it over though.  
He heard them mention something about love. Love, what was this love they spoke of? If they did the same things that Rouge and him did, did that mean that He loved her? It was so confusing.  
Shadow looked over at her again. She scooped a handful of popcorn into her mouth, and swallowed it down. She looked back at him and smiled.  
Shadow looked back at the screen.  
During the movie, Shadow unconsciously put his arm around Rouge, by having it behind her, on her chair. Rouge noticed this, and leaned a bit on his shoulder. Shadow had a feeling inside him he could not describe. He tried to ignore it, and watched the movie. They were 4 rows down from Amy, Sonic, and Tails. Amy elbowed Sonic on the side. "Hey.. Sonic… look down there" Amy whispered, pointing to Rouge and Shadow.  
Sonic took his eyes off the screen and looked down there. "Hey hey, looks like Shadow's finally found something worth while" Sonic whispered.  
"Hmph, even if it is sweet, I think they disserve each other. I don't like Rouge." Amy said.  
Sonic shrugged and continued to watch the movie.  
After the movie, Shadow and Rouge were the last ones to leave; they walked close together, but quietly.

"That movie wasn't half bad" Rouge said, breaking the silence.  
Shadow nodded, walking beside her. "What did you think of it?" Rouge asked.  
"..Rouge, what is.. love?…" Shadow asked, stopping in front of her, is back to her.  
"Well…. It's hard to say… " Rouge said.  
Shadow listened.  
"Hmm… welll…." Rouge stepped in front of him. "It's when you care about somebody. You know…you'll always be by their side, no matter what happens… Its hard to say…" Rouge took a few steps ahead, her hands on her hips thinking.  
Shadow looked down thinking. He paused for a while, Rouge looked back at him. "hmm.. well lets get out of here, I don't know about you, but I'm not tired. Lets go have some fun." Rouge started walking ahead of him. He nodded and followed. 


	20. The Distraction

Rouge rolled the bowling ball with a thrust of her hand. She was getting a bit annoyed, arm power wasn't her thing.

Shadow's turn. He Walked up to the bowling aisle. Took one step back shifting his weight on his left leg, taking a moment to analyze the position of the bowling pins. With one shot! Shadow gets a strike!, Shadow merely smiles and smooths his quills, turning around taking a seat.

"It's so unfair" Rouge said holding the ball.  
Shadow looked at her.  
"Say there's no rules about how we get the ball to the pins right?" Rouge asks, turning around.  
"I suppose as long as you roll the ball with some means of force.."Shadowanswers,wondering what she was getting at.Rouge kicks the bowling ball with a sharp hitwiththe foot, Knocking all the pins down. "Alright!" Rouge walked back with her hands on her hips, walking conceited. Proud of herself.  
"Heh" Shadow said finding it a bit funny. He shakes his head, and continues the game.  
'It seems Shadow's finally coming out of his shell...' Rouge thought to herself, smiling as she watched him. 'I've never seen him this way...'

After the bowling game, they both go for some desert from the desert bar.

"You know i woulda won if i knew i could use my feet." Rouge said pushing a bit of chocolate ice cream into her mouth with a spoon.  
"Sure you could of" Shadow said leaning back in a cushioned chair. "These fruit tarts are good..." Rouge smiled with delight as she bit into one. "Mmm.."

Shadow took a bite of a caramel apple. He had never had caramel before.  
Rouge noticed how long Shadow took to chew a small piece of it. She giggle "Need some help there, Shadow?" Rouge giggled.  
Shadow closed his eyes and chewed the piece in denial. He finally swallows it. And sets the apple down.  
"A warning label would have been appreciated." Shadow said a bit annoyed by the amazingly hard to chew caramel apple.  
Rouge smiled finding what he said funny. "Well now..how could they?" Rouge said sarcastically.  
Shadow decided to try some ice cream, he got up to go get himself some.  
Rouge mixed her spoon in the melted ice cream, deep in thought. She did everything she could to get her mission off of her mind. It was kind of working but... There was still always something remaining.  
Shadow comes back. He noticed her deep in thought, but didn't say anything. Rouge noticed Shadow watching her, she had to hide her true feelings, she had to. It'd mess up everything. But what could she say?  
She wished Shadow could say something, to bring her out of this, mind halt. This mind trap. But real life isn't magic, its not movies, life doesn't work that way, where someone can take away your problems and fix everything for you. You don't live happily ever after, none of that is true. You need to work for your happiness, you need to work for your success. You need to work for anything you want to achieve, even if it's saving your own ass.  
"Well.. i think I've had enough here.." Rouge pushed her plates aside. "I'm stuffed!" Rouge complained.  
Shadow put his spoon down.  
"I'm out." Rouge pushed out of her chair with a wave, and started to walk out of the room. "I'll see ya in the morning, Shadow"  
Shadow nodded, watching her leave. 'Hmm..' he thought to himself. He wondered why she wasn't acting like herself for a second there.  
He wondered if he should let her go.  
But something in him, made him get out of his chair. To find her again.

Rouge walked down the hall, her Eyes were a little teary. But no tears of course. Rouge was a very strong lady. 'Rouge get a hold of your self.. there's nothing to get upset about...' Rouge told herself. 'Whaddya mean nothing? If i don't find those emeralds I'm chopped liver!' She argued with herself. 'and what about Shadow? I can't get him involved.' She thought, gathering herself together. "What a mess you've gotten yourself into.." She said aloud.

Rouge hears footsteps. She quickly flys upward into the shadows of the ceiling.

She sees Shadow walking down the hall.

'Shadow.. What's he doing here?' Rouge watched him walk. 'Great he must think somethings up now! You've done it now Rouge!' Rouge's ear's wained down. She flew down the hall in the shadows, careful to not be noticed by the passing Shadow.

She lands to her door. "Whew" She says, as she turns the knob. She hears Shadow's skates clamp against the ground. He is a few steps behind her.  
Rouge turned around to him "Shadow? What a surprise! I thought you were still eating" Rouge said with a smile.

"..Rouge... Something is bothering you.. I must know.." Shadow said, looking her in the eyes.

"Shadow! Do i look like i have something bothering me? I appreciate your concern, but honestly, ism fine!" She said with a carefree expression. Rouge went closer inside of her room, in the door way.

Shadow stared at her, knowing something was wrong, he couldn't let it go just like that.

Shadow nodded at her taking another step. She turns and tries to close the door slowly. "Now i'm exhausted, thanks for the evening, but i hafta get some beauty sle-" Shadow puts his hand fiercely on the door stopping her from closing it.

Rouge looked at his hand and then to him. 'Not good...' Rouge said to herself. "Well if you wanted in my room that bad, you could of just asked..!" Rouge said sarcastically. Trying to change the subject disparately.

Shadow eyed her. He wasn't leaving without an answer.

Rouge crossed her arms again, and looked to the side, with her eyes closed. "I can't even imagine. Your one of the most keep to yourself guys around. And you want me to open up to you?.." Rouge blinked at him trying to show her annoyance to how nosy he was being.

It wasn't working. The only way to get out of this one, was to do something terribly distracting.

Shadow sighed. "..Listen.. Rouge... ..It is not my place to make you choose your way.." Shadow looked down at her. "..Something in me senses.. Something.. There is something troubling you Rouge.."

Rouge looked at him with her natural smirk, ready to avoid it yet again "..I.." but got lost in his gaze. "I..." she couldn't even think of what to say anymore.

"I'm sorry Shadow.. I just can't.. tell you.." Rouge finally admitted. Rouge turned away from him with her ears down.  
Shadow looked at her for a very long time. "You should.. get going.." Rouge said making sure to not turn around.  
A long pause shows itself between them.  
Rouge stairs down at the ground, one arm straight down by her side, the other holding onto the back of her arm.  
Shadow walks to her.  
he puts his hand on her Shoulder.  
Rouge's ears perk up just a little. "Shadow.." she says in a sad tone.  
Shadow gently embraces her from behind. Not speaking at all.  
They both were silent. But yet so loud inside.  
How in the world would Rouge get out of this? He couldn't know! He can't! The whole mission would be jeopardized! Rouge turned around quickly. "Shadow... I... I Love you." She looked him in the eyes. Shadow was almost speechless, his hands were still on her shoulders.  
Rouge put her head to his chest. Regretting that she could betray him like this.  
Shadow put his hand on her cheek and she quickly moved for his lips, pushing him against the door that was 3/4ths of the way open. It slammed the door shut. She held so much passion into this kiss. She wanted to forget. She wanted to forget so much. Shadow put his arms around her, letting that part of him he was so new to.. take over again.  
Both were caught under there own spells.  
Both are immobilized by passion. 


	21. Shared feelings of uncertainty

Passion is something all of us hold.

Whether we use it at the right time, or for the right person, we cannot control that sometimes.

We can only move for what we already know.

Or what we have to hold back.

Shadow holds his head up to the warm drops of water from the shower nozel. It cleans the mind almost. He felt two very strong feelings.

One would be desire. Oh how he desired to be in that bed with Rouge, again and again. He had to have. He had to give. To please her. To be rewarded….

But then, the feeling of Uncertainty. Whether this was a good experience or not, would it be something to hold onto, something to keep going with. Is this what love is he wonders? Or is it something more. Something indescribable?

Shadow comes out of the shower, and dries his head with a white towel. He smoothes out his quills.

Suddenly he remembered something.

"Shadow, you're thinking too much"

This is a quote that always lingers in his mind.

He remembered those words. Back from Eggman's armada. Him with Rouge, Omega, trying to find Dr. Eggman. It was there He thought the lightning passing by was an omen. Rouge had told him not to think so much of those kinds of things.. That he was thinking too much.

Perhaps this was on of those times to not think so much?

Shadow again was uncertain.

But what was to be uncertain about?

She said she loved him.. right?

Again he thought about what this love is.

Rouge broke his thoughts; they were still together in the same suite.

"Hey" she said, greeting him. She was fully dressed. A Night had passed since the last.

"Hey" Shadow said back, with a small smile.

If you want to know the honest truth, Rouge was just about as uncertain as Shadow was.

She only had different reasons.

Desire, she desired and craved the pleasure he had given her, she desired his touch, his face, just the approach of him. Everything about him she desired. But whether or not she could have, or maintain, that she was uncertain.

Life… has its responsibilities and it's consequences. It's up to one to decide whether or not the sacrifices are worth it.

Was this a sacrifice?

Would it be her job before… Shadow?

It was here Rouge thought of herself as crazy. Losing her mind.

She had always been a greedy person, only caring for herself. Why now? Why when she was on a mission? One forced upon her?

And are these feelings true?

She kept telling herself she told Shadow she loved him, for the mission, no one could know what she had to do. Shadow would despise her.

He could never know.

But then, was telling him she loved him a lie?

It was said as a distraction, yes, but the more Rouge thought about it, the more unsure about it she was.

But sitting around, thinking about it, dwelling in your mind, does nothing.

You have to do something for a change Or else, something has to happen, that leaves an impact.

But what could happen to have a big enough magnitude for change to occur?

This is only decided by fate itself.

So fate it shall be.

And fate decides.


End file.
